COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A man accused of stealing a Chevrolet Corvette from a customer at a Cobb County gas station was later confronted by police on Tuesday as he stood on another car with his shirt off.
As Marietta police tried to convince the man, identified as Lan Weddington, to step off the car roof, he made a threatening gesture with his hands, police said.
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“He makes an abrupt turn, acts like he’s pulling a gun from his waistband and points at the officers. Our officers refrained from taking immediate action. They were able to calm him down. At that point, he appeared to have a medical issue,” Marietta Police spokeswoman Brittany Wallace said.
Police said the Weddington approached the Corvette owner earlier Tuesday evening at a Quik Trip gas station on Marietta Parkway.
"He came up behind me and said, 'Give me this car or I"m going to blow your brains out,'" the Corvette owner, Andrew Ball, said. "He took off, spun the car in front of the Quik Trip. I though my car was going to get wrecked."
Police traced the stolen car to a neighborhood where they made contact with the suspect, who jumped on top of another vehicle and began acting strange, authorities said.
Over the past year, Marietta police have received crisis intervention training on dealing with mentally unstable individuals. They believe the training proved effective in this case.
“The suspect's family was on the scene. They witnessed the encounter and afterward thanked the officers for not shooting him, when they potentially could have,“ Wallace said.
Weddington was taken to the hospital for a mental evaluation before being taken to jail.
Cox Media Group
