A man wielding a box cutter at a Whole Foods grocery store in Buckhead carjacked a woman’s SUV early Thursday and led police on a high-speed chase before crashing a short time later in southwest Atlanta.
The 22-year-old victim, Morgan Watson, told Channel 2 Action News she noticed the suspect, Donald L. Bryant, looking at her as she walked into the grocery store on West Paces Ferry Road just before 11 a.m.
When she returned to her Range Rover and put the key into the ignition, Watson said Bryant caught her door and stood “really, uncomfortably close to me and says, ‘Get out of the car.’”
Watson said Bryant then pulled out a box cutter.
“I tried to kick him, and he dragged me out of the car, and I was hitting him and I bit him,” Watson told Channel 2. “[I] think I managed to cut him with his own box cutter.”
Several people came to the woman’s aid and two tried to follow the stolen vehicle as it left the parking lot. Police said Bryant may have gotten confused as he tried to flee the area.
“What’s interesting in this is that as officers were arriving on scene in their patrol car, the perpetrator in the stolen vehicle went by the location again,” Atlanta police spokesman Greg Lyon told Channel 2. “Either he was lost or turned around. That’s how we spotted him and the pursuit began.”
The chase after the Range Rover took police from Buckhead, through Midtown and Downtown, and then to southwest Atlanta on I-75 south. A Georgia State Patrol trooper performed a PIT maneuver, sending the stolen vehicle out of control. and flipping.
Watson, the carjack victim, suffered a few cuts and was treated at the scene. There were no other injuries, police said.
Bryant, 48, was jailed on multiple charges, including armed robbery, aggravated assault and reckless driving.
Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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