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SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. - An advertising executive kidnapped his ex-wife from a parking garage Tuesday, held her hostage in a suburban Hartford home and fired shots out of the house, police and the man's lawyer said.
Richard Shenkman, 60, missed a meeting with lawyer Hugh Keefe at Hartford Superior Court on Tuesday morning and was supposed to vacate the home later in the day, the attorney said.
"I hope it ends peacefully without any more violence," Keefe said.
Police blocked off streets near the home on Tumblebrook Drive in South Windsor that the couple used the share. Police negotiators and the Hartford bomb squad were at the scene. South Windsor police Cmdr. Matthew Reed said there was no confirmation of explosives in the house.
Shenkman was "irritated" by stories on the Hartford Courant's Web site and demanded that the information be removed by 2:30 p.m., Reed said. Stories remained on the paper's Web site after that time.
Shenkman made other demands, said Reed, who would not elaborate.
Shenkman and Nancy Tyler, 57, have shared three years of contentious divorce proceedings, Keefe said. They married in 1993; a judge granted the divorce last year, but Shenkman has been appealing.
The state Appellate Court, in a decision officially released Tuesday, rejected Shenkman's appeal. Shenkman had sought to delay the divorce proceedings until an arson case against him was resolved.
He is accused of burning down the couple's beach home in East Lyme in 2007, hours before he was to hand it over to Tyler. The case is pending in New London Superior Court.
Shenkman also has other pending criminal charges, including threatening, violating a protective order and forgery, according to the state Judicial Branch.
Tyler's lawyer, Norm Pattis, said Shenkman's behavior during the divorce trial was "menacing, threatening, nothing short of bizarre."
"The reports that he abducted Ms. Tyler ... is consistent with the level of irrationality that he displayed throughout the proceedings," Pattis said. "I hope the police will take prompt and decisive action to make sure no harm comes to Ms. Tyler."
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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford contributed to this report.
