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Tow truck driver tells of dramatic confrontation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Deronta Franklin, a tow-truck driver, was waiting on a dispatch at Peachtree and Wall streets when he saw a dark SUV round the corner and hit the curb a few minutes after 9 a.m. The driver pulled into a parking deck behind him, and waited.
Seconds later, two police cars followed and stopped at the corner. One was an Atlanta police car and the other was Fulton County sheriff’s car, Franklin said. He showed them where the suspect was hiding.
“I pointed directly into the parking deck and they went in,” said Franklin, 37.
As the police cars entered the parking deck, the suspect burst through the mechanical arm and sped in.
“Three more officers [in vehicles] came up and said ‘Which way did he go?’ I told them ‘He went right up in there.’”
Franklin said the next thing he knew, the SUV driver was at his window pointing a gun at him.
In a calm voice, the gunman said “Get out of the truck.”
“You can have the truck,” Franklin said.
Franklin said the gunman was not visibly upset or sweating. He wore a turquoise green or blue suede jogging suit. Franklin watched as the man got in the tow truck and sped north on Peachtree Street, then took a left turn in the wrong direction on Walton Street, a one-way street near Five Points.
After hearing about the wake of death the gunman left, Franklin said “I’m surprised he didn’t shoot me then. I was just fortunate.”
A Tow Atlanta Inc. CEO Page Porter said the company’s truck was found at 98 Cone St.
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