NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A New Jersey man who police said admitted throwing his baby daughter off a bridge pleaded not guilty Thursday to kidnapping in a brief court appearance.
State Police continued to search the Raritan River around Sayreville in central New Jersey for Zara Malani-lin Abdur, 3 months, The (Newark) Star-Ledger reported.
Shamsid-Din Abdur-Raheem, 21, was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly told his father what he had done. He is being held in the Essex County Jail in lieu of $700,000 bail.
Investigators say Abdur-Raheem assaulted his daughter's grandmother at her East Orange home and kidnapped the baby while her mother, Venetta Benjamin, 29, was applying for a restraining order. He then allegedly drove south, threw the baby off a bridge on the Garden State Parkway and went to his father's home in Sicklerville near Camden where he was arrested at about 8 p.m.
State Police Sgt. Juan Castellano said the search for the baby is still a rescue operation although the chance she could have survived is slight.
