Tip on fugitive came after plea for child

QUINCY -- After police responded for the third time Sunday to calls of domestic violence at the faded white duplex on Beacon Street, the sister of fugitive Thomas A. Shay offered to serve her brother "up on a silver platter" if she were allowed to keep custody of her infant son, according to a police report.

That led to the arrest the next day of Shay, who had eluded authorities for the past year.

Thomas Shay, 35, served a decade in prison for a 1991 bombing that killed a Boston police officer and wounded another. After serving his time, he fled last August after several parole violations, police said. Law enforcement officials followed leads on him from as far away as Chicago.

During the last of the three calls to the home Sunday, Paula Shay, 38, allegedly slurring her words after a day of drinking, offered to reveal her brother's location to Quincy Officer Bruce Tait as they awaited the arrival of a Department of Social Services worker, the police report said.

The agency had been called after Paula's sister, Amy Lenar, contacted authorities saying she was concerned for the child.

"Amy Lenar was screaming that baby Nicholas was in danger, and we needed to take him away from Paula," Tait wrote in his report.

Lenar said Paula Shay had verbally confronted her and choked her, according to the report.

"Paula Shay told me that if allowed to keep her baby, she would 'give up' her brother Thomas Shay. . . ." Tait wrote in his report. "When I questioned her about this, she told me she 'could serve him up on a silver platter' and made references that he was currently in the Quincy area."

Tait told her he could not make any promises.

Paula Shay was arrested and charged with domestic assault and battery, and DSS workers took custody of the infant. A spokeswoman for DSS said yesterday that the child was placed in foster care as the agency conducts a 10-day investigation.

At the police station, Paula Shay complained of chest pains and was transported to Quincy Medial Center, where she attempted to hang herself and assaulted emergency room staff, according to the police report. She was ordered held for a mental health evaluation and is due in court Aug. 10.

Supervisory Deputy US Marshal Jeffrey L. Bohn said by phone that his office was contacted by Quincy Police Monday with the tip that Shay was in the area.

That morning, US marshals, Boston police, and Quincy police went to the Shay residence, where family members said he was not home. However, he was found sleeping upstairs, pulled out of bed, and arrested about 9:30, according to Bohn.

Shay family members could not be reached for comment yesterday and Paula Shay's court- appointed lawyer, Stephen J. Lowell, declined to comment.

Shay was convicted of plotting with a friend, Alfred W. Trenkler, to make a bomb, which was planted under Shay's father's car in a Roslindale driveway. On Oct. 28, 1991, as Boston Police Bomb Squad members were examining it, the bomb exploded. Officer Jeremiah J. Hurley Jr., 50, was killed, and his partner, Officer Francis X. Foley, lost an eye.

Trenkler, 51, who had been serving a life sentence, had his term reduced in April to 37 years.

Since his release from prison in 2002, Shay has repeatedly violated his federal supervised release, authorities said. He is scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday to determine whether he should be sent back to prison.

Shelley Murphy of the Globe staff contributed to this report.