Kidnapping suspect says it wasn't a kidnapping

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- The woman involved in the 14-hour standoff is speaking out about the situation for the first time.

Brandy Chapman was inside the home with Adam Nieman during the hours-long standoff that unfolded on Redfield Street in Milton Township last week.

Chapman explained that she and Nieman were inside the home of a family friends’ house when everything happened. She said they were living there, taking care of the four-year-old child that ended up in the middle of the standoff.

She said the child was never in danger but rather scared to go out and face the armed officers.

Police said the SWAT situation kicked off after Nieman grabbed a gun and kept the child away from police officers. Chapman said things happened a little differently.   

ABC57 is not identifying the child.

“[The child] came flying through the house scared out of his mind. Next thing I know Adam is looking around the corner and there’s this marshal just has his gun just waving his gun and [the child] was like, ‘He’s got a gun! He’s got a gun!’ so I just grabbed [him] and went to the bedroom,” Chapman said.

Nieman was wanted out of Laporte County for allegedly robbing a store in Hamlet, Indiana when police came knocking on the door at the Redfield Street address.

“He was out on a robbery charge he was wrongfully accused of,” Chapman said. “He went to trial, it was a hung jury. He ended up running from work release which was what led us to be there.”

She admits Nieman knew the police were after him but said that he never wanted to put the child in danger. Nieman echoing that during an outburst in court last week saying he never took the child hostage.

“I didn’t take that kid! No, I’m not gonna be quiet! I didn’t take that kid! I was watching him for two months,” Nieman yelled at the prosecution during his arraignment.

Chapman said that the child’s mother trusted her and Nieman with her kid.

“Nobody scared that baby but those police,” Chapman said. “All he wanted was to get the police away. ‘Please make the police leave! Please make the police leave! I don’t want them to hurt me.’ And you know we’re trying to justify the cops you know ‘honey they’re not here to hurt you. You know cops don’t hurt people, especially not kids.’”

ABC57 did go to the home involved in the standoff to try to have a conversation with the mother of the child involved in the standoff. She was either not home or didn’t come to the door.

“There was never no kidnapping, never once. We were the ones that coaxed that kid to go out to his mama,” Chapman said. “There was not any point in time that that kid was held against his will.”

Nieman is facing 17 charges as a result of the standoff. Chapman is facing charges for conspiracy to kidnap and resisting police.