Police say man on crack smashed windows of cop cars

An Atlanta police van windshield was smashed with a rock Monday morning on Peachtree Street. (Credit: Heyward Wescott)

An Atlanta police van windshield was smashed with a rock Monday morning on Peachtree Street. (Credit: Heyward Wescott)

A man police say has an extensive criminal history was in jail Monday after an early-morning rampage that left eight police vehicles and an Atlanta business with smashed windows.

Roy Tommie Jewell (Credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office)

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Roy Tommie Jewell had glass shards in his hair, on his clothes and in his shoes when police found him near the police parking lot at 226 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, according to a police report.

Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. Warren Pickard told Channel 2 Action News the 47-year-old was in a drug-induced state of chaos.

“(Jewell) was under the influence of narcotics, we believe it was crack cocaine,” Pickard said. “And he just went on a binge of destruction."

Two officers walking into the police station for roll call noticed Jewell, but they couldn’t tell that he was doing anything criminal, the police report states.

Once inside, another officer said all the police cars in the lot had smashed windows. So about five officers walked back outside and saw Jewell crossing outside of the crosswalk at Pine Street.

Jewell lay down in the middle of Pine Street when the officers approached, blocking a school bus on its way to pick up children, the report states.

When they looked at the Custom Signs Today shop and noticed a street-level window smashed, officers walked over and found a large rock that matched the size and shape of the damage to the police van windshield.

Heyward Wescott owns the shop where a window was damaged.

Jewell, who Pickard said had been arrested 18 times before, was charged with interference with government vehicles, entering auto, criminal damage to property and crossing outside of a crosswalk.

He was taken to the Fulton County jail.

“We're glad we've got him off the street before he hurt anybody,” Pickard said.