The calls from the public came quickly and apparently often to the St. Paul Police Department during the weekend.

By Sunday afternoon, the tips paid off as police arrested a 25-year-old motorcyclist they believe rode off after striking and critically injuring a 4-year-old boy in St. Paul on his way to celebrate his birthday on Saturday.

The suspect, from St. Paul, was arrested without incident by police in a hotel room in Shakopee. Police said no one else was in the room and no weapons were recovered.

Investigators also apparently confiscated a blue motorcycle that might have been involved in the hit-and-run crash.

A police spokesman said investigators had interviewed the suspect. Police reports will be presented to the Ramsey County attorney's office on Monday for possible charges.

Police said Tyrell Baymon was holding his mother's hand when he was struck and flipped into the air by a motorcycle going possibly as fast as 60 miles per hour in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul on Saturday.

As his family watched in horror, Tyrell landed unconscious about 40 feet away. His family at first feared that he was dead. The youngster remained in critical condition Sunday at Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare hospital. Tyrell has a fractured skull and broken ribs and underwent at least one surgery.

Late Sunday, Marcia Scroggins, the boy's mother, issued a statement thanking police and the community for help in locating the suspect. "Thank you to everyone who has been praying for my son and to the police who have been working on this case," she said.

Police spokesman Howie Padilla said the man, whom the Star Tribune is not naming because he has not been charged, was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. "The public's assistance was a contributing factor," he said.

Padilla said officers and dispatchers received a number of calls about the suspect. More information will be released Monday about which hotel the suspect was in, which agencies participated in the arrest and the number of calls police received, Padilla said.

Tyrell was on his way to his own and his cousin's combined birthday party at Como Park when he was hit at about 1 p.m. Saturday. He was holding his mother's hand as she loaded party supplies into her vehicle when the motorcyclist, who was reportedly doing wheelies, sped down the 300 block of Lafond Avenue W. and struck the boy, unheeding of Tyrell's uncle, Andre Scroggins, who said he was screaming at him to stop.

The rider first fell off the motorcycle following the impact and then hopped back on and sped off as the child's family watched.

"I wanted to burst into tears," said Dennis Scroggins, another of Tyrell's uncles, shortly after the incident. "How can someone do that? How can you hit someone and just keep going and leave them on the side of the road like roadkill?"

Heron Marquez • 952-746-3281