COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A man wanted on several warrants hid inside of a ceiling to avoid deputies.
Channel 2 Cobb County bureau chief Michele Newell was live for Channel 2 Action News at 5:00.
Dramatic video shows a man hiding from Cobb County Sheriff’s deputies in the ceiling of a garage, but deputies found the suspect fairly quickly.
A footprint on the wall and other clues pointed deputies to where the suspect hid.
They told Newell they often find suspects hide in ceilings, dryer machines and other odd places to avoid jail time.
“They were there to remove the individual from the home since it was a (temporary protective order),” said Col. Ryan Mehling of Cobb County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators say the suspect violated a court order to stay away from his wife and had outstanding warrants.
“He also had a failure to appear warrant out of Doraville and a misdemeanor probation warrant out of Cobb County,” Mehling said.
Deputies arrived at the home and got no response from inside. So they used a drone to fly into the home when they didn’t get an answer.
“This drone provides a live feed to our operator so we can see the layout of the home and any potential dangers that are in the home before out,” Mehling said.
When the drone didn’t spot anyone, deputies moved in.
“All of the officers in the front of the stack, they did have their rifle ballistic shields in front of them. One of the members of the team noticed a fresh boot mark on the side of the wall and looked up to see a freshly cut hole in the ceiling,” Mehling said.
Deputies pulled the suspect from the ceiling.
The sheriffs domestic violence unit is made up of four investigators. They received a little more than 3,000 temporary protective orders, served over 1,000 TPOs and removed more than 100 individuals from homes they were ordered to stay away from.
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