Dogs, helicopters and more than 20 state police were searching this morning for a 3-month-old girl whose father said he tossed her off a Garden State Parkway bridge.

The baby was abducted by the father yesterday afternoon in Essex County, N.J., and he was arrested last evening at his father's house in Winslow Township, Camden County, according to New Jersey State Police.

 

Shamshiddin Abdur-Raheem, 21, told police he had thrown the baby off the parkway's Driscoll Bridge, which crosses the Raritan River in Middlesex County.

 

Shortly before 4:30 p.m., Abdur-Raheem forced his way into an apartment on South Harrison Street in East Orange, where the baby was being cared for by her maternal grandmother, according to State Police spokesman Sgt. Steve Jones.

 

Abdur-Raheem assaulted the grandmother, then struck her with his 2002 Dodge Caravan as the 60-year-old woman tried to preventing him from fleeing with the infant, Zura, Jones said.

 

The extent of her injuries and the whereabouts of the mother, he did not know.

 

About 8 p.m., Winslow Township police contacted the suspect's father, who lives on Maureen Court. Police apprehended the suspect at that location, Jones said.

 

Adbur-Raheem, who lives in Galloway, north of Atlantic City, admitted to authorities that he tossed the baby off the bridge, Jones said.

 

Before heading to his father's house, at about 6:30 p.m., the suspect visited an Atlantic City imam and told the religious leader what he had done, Jones said.

 

The search began about 9 p.m. last night with members of an array of State Police units, including canine, aviation, marine, missing persons, major crimes, and Technical Emergency and Mission Specialists (TEAMS), similar to a SWAT team.

 

Abdur-Raheem was transported to East Orange, where he was charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault and other offenses. He was being held in Essex County Jail.

 

A woman who answered the phone at the Winslow Township address sounded upset but declined to comment on the case.