Police: Children scared as father drives drunk

RIVERDALE, Ga. — Police said a father's children told them how frightened they were after he drove drunk with them in the car.

Clayton County Police arrested Garrick Hall, 39, on 18 counts Sunday.

Officers said when they arrived in the 500 block of Flint River Road near Riverdale they said Hall's children told them his erratic driving left them afraid.

After speaking with the children and Hall's wife, police charged Hall with DUI, child endangerment while DUI, reckless driving, driving on the wrong side of the roadway, seat belt violations, cruelty to children and simple battery.

Channel 2's Tom Jones spoke with Hall's wife, Takiesha Hall. She admits her husband was drinking and said she tried to get him to give up the keys.

"And he was kind of swerving a little bit and the kids noticed it and they were like, 'Pull over,'" Takiesha Hall said.

She said her 9-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son, along with two 9-year-old nephews, were screaming for her husband to pull over because of his erratic driving.

When she finally got him to stop at a Shell gas station she said they got into a fight over his driving. Someone called police, and when officers arrived, the kids explained what happened.

"They told them 'Daddy scared us when he was driving. He was going on the side of the road,'" Takiesha Hall said.

An arrest warrant affidavit said Hall's blood alcohol level was 0.197 percent. The legal driving limit is .08 percent.

Hall said the kids were strapped in.

"They did have seat belts on. We were all restrained in the vehicle," Hall said.

She can't understand why her husband faces DUI, when officers never saw him driving.

"A DUI, I thought, was when a person got pulled over driving (while drunk)," she said.

Police said that's not true. They have Hall's blood alcohol level and the statements from the children.

"They have an eyewitness. Especially, a witness that was there at the time of the occurrence of the crime," Clayton County Police Spokeswoman Charlene Watson-Fraser said.

Hall remains locked up at the Clayton County Jail on a $32,000 bond.

His wife said he needs help, not incarceration.

WSBTV