A SWAT standoff at a home near Lake Acworth ended Wednesday morning with the arrest of a suspect in a deadly hit-and-run.
Investigators tracked the suspect to the home in the Bay Island Cay subdivision after a pedestrian was killed hours earlier on Cobb Parkway, Cobb County police spokeswoman Sydney Melton said.
“At that point in time, the suspect was not coming out of the home,” she told AJC.com. “Out of an abundance of caution, we had our SWAT units respond, and the suspect was taken out of the home peacefully.”
The suspect, identified as 26-year-old Christian Martinez, was taken into custody just before 10 a.m. after a three-hour standoff near Baywind Walk. Melton said she did not know if negotiators made contact with the man before taking him in.
He was arrested on charges of felony hit-and-run and driving with a suspended license, a misdemeanor, in connection with the incident that killed 47-year-old Christopher Makin of Emerson.
Makin was found lying in the roadway near Lake Acworth Drive when police responded about 2:30 a.m. He and his 23-year-old son had stopped in their Dodge Caravan after hitting a curb and bridge rail, according to traffic investigators.
Makin was hit by a tan Hyundai Sonata when he got out of the van to move crash debris from the road, investigators said. His son was not injured.
Martinez was later identified as the driver of the Sonata. He also had an outstanding warrant from another county, Melton said. It was unknown if he was armed during the standoff.
The SWAT activity shut down access to some roads in the subdivision, which is located off Dallas Acworth Highway. All roads have since reopened.
