ATLANTA — Atlanta police have released more information and bodycam video after a man is accused of stealing a car in midtown with a 2-year-old girl in the backseat.
The car theft happened on Thursday around 4:30 p.m. The woman whose car was stolen called 911 in a panic when she realized her car was gone with her daughter in the back seat.
“Someone just stole my car. And it has my 2-year-old daughter in it,” the mother told the responding 911 operator. “I was dropping off an Instacart order, and I came back outside, and my car is gone. My daughter was inside.”
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Atlanta police said they instantly started searching for the stolen car. Using license plate readers around the city, they quickly found the car at a shopping center near the intersection of Howell Mill and Collier roads.
Bodycam video released by Atlanta police shows a male officer yelling to the alleged thief, identified as Saleem Martin, 21, to put his hands up on the window of the car.
He was still inside the vehicle in the back seat.
“Hands up. Get out of the car, slow,” a male officer told Martin as another female officer came around the front of the car with guns drawn.
In the background, you can hear the toddler crying, still strapped in her car seat.
“It’s OK baby, it’s OK,” the female officer told the child as they put handcuffs on Martin.
The child was unharmed and quickly reunited with her mother.
As for Martin, he has been charged with kidnapping, theft by taking, simple battery, entering an automobile, cruelty to children, and criminal attempt to commit a felony.
Martin is currently being held in the Fulton County Jail.
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