DULUTH, Ga. — A laser strike against a police helicopter interrupted an active search for a domestic violence suspect in Gwinnett County Thursday night, according to police.
Law enforcement officers in Gwinnett County tell Channel 2 Action News that “laser strikes” on aircraft are getting more frequent.
Channel 2′s Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson spoke to officers in Duluth after a man in a motel room used a laser and got in the way of a helicopter search for a suspect.
Gwinnett County’s Air 1 Helicopter was working to find a violent suspect, but light from a laser strike coming from a nearby hotel derailed the search, police said.
Police say it happens far too often now.
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On Thursday night, Gwinnett County police pilots were in the air looking for a domestic violence suspect.
A beam of green light filled the windshield for two Gwinnett County Police Aviation Unit pilots aboard Air 1 and it led to the arrest of one person accused of pointing a laser pointer at the helicopter. It’s part of an ongoing nationwide increase in laser strikes tracked by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“The green laser is blinding the pilots,” Sgt. Michele Pihera said. “It’s very distressing for our pilots.”
Pihera said the green light became such a hazard to the pilot that they had to stop assisting in the search for the domestic violence suspect.
Instead, they turned their attention to the hotel.
“Our pilots, who were looking for a bad guy, a suspect, were having to call off of that to take enforcement action to find the person pointing the laser at the aircraft,” Pihera told Channel 2 Action News.
Pilots were able to zero in on the laser around 9 p.m., coming from the Intown Suites Extended Stay on Satellite Boulevard.
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Officers on the ground were then able to find the suspect with the laser in a motel room.
“They were able to see exactly where it’s coming from,” Pihera said.
Video shows police arresting 37-year-old Robert Daniel Long, who was later charged with “laser use against an aircraft” and two counts of obstruction of law enforcement.
Data from the FAA reviewed by Channel 2 Action News said laser strikes were up 40% since 2017 all across the United States.
In Gwinnett County, it’s not the first laser strike. They almost always end with arrests, according to police.
“If you have one of these lasers, do not point it in the sky and do not point at an aircraft,” Pihera said.
Police said that the original domestic violence suspect they were searching for was not found Thursday night, and Long remains in jail.
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