Abducted Alabama Attorney Found Safe

A family law attorney was found Wednesday about nine hours after she was abducted at gunpoint from a parking lot and police arrested a man suspected in the kidnapping, officials said.

Sandra Eubank Gregory, 34, was found in a motel a few miles from where she was abducted. Lt. Henry Irby said Gregory was "reportedly all right." He would not comment further on her condition.

Police swarmed the Comfort Inn around 5:20 p.m. and arrested a man who fit the suspect's description, holding him down on a walkway outside the second-floor motel room before putting him in the back of a police car.

The lawyer was led out of the room moments later with a covering over her head. She appeared to walk out under her own power. Irby said police do not believe she knew the man who abducted her.

Wednesday morning, witnesses told police they saw a gunman force Gregory back into the Lexus she was driving and then drive away. The abduction occurred near her office.

Authorities spent most of the day searching for Gregory and her greenish-gray sport utility vehicle. A child safety seat was in the back seat, but Irby said no children were believed to have been in the vehicle.

Irby said money and a weapon were found in the motel room. The Birmingham News quoted police as saying there was activity on Gregory's account at three area branches of AmSouth bank following the abduction.

Officials did not release any information about the suspect's identity or any charges he might face.

Officers found the woman's SUV in the parking lot of a Birmingham housing project hours after the abduction and were preparing to move it late Wednesday afternoon when attention shifted to the Comfort Inn.

The Birmingham News reported that the Lexus belongs to Gregory's boyfriend, and her former husband was sent to pick up his and Gregory's daughter at day care.

The newspaper reported Gregory's boyfriend, also a lawyer, told police he talked with her by cell phone at about 11 a.m. She told him she was OK, but her boyfriend told police that she got agitated and quickly hung up, apparently out of fear.