Some 25 miles away from an area where she allegedly hit and killed a pedestrian before carjacking two drivers, a woman was arrested early Wednesday after trying to carjack a third driver in Atlanta, police said.
The bizarre series of events began about 6:15 a.m. on Cobb Parkway near Bells Ferry Road in Cobb County, where 43-year-old Kristie Renee Nesby — armed with a handgun — left the roadway and hit a woman walking on a nearby sidewalk without stopping, Cobb police Officer Alicia Chilton said.
The pedestrian was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where she later died.
“After striking the pedestrian, the suspect carjacked another motorist’s vehicle and fled the scene southbound on Cobb Parkway,” Marietta police spokesman Officer Jared Rakestraw said. “A short distance down the road near Canton Road and I-75, the suspect committed an additional carjacking and fled that scene as well.”
Nesby made it to Atlanta, wrecked her car, got out of that vehicle and ran down Ponce de Leon Avenue with the gun, Chilton said.
Amanda Lewis, who was on her way to work at Druid Hills Child Development Center, was stopped at a red light in the area when she heard the car crash into another vehicle.
“I don’t even know where her car came from,” Lewis said. “She just [came] flying.”
Lewis said Nesby hit the car hard enough to send it flying into someone’s yard and send hers into nearby bushes.
Lewis said she saw the woman try to jump in a black Chevy, but the driver pushed her out.
Nesby tried to take other vehicles before Atlanta police took her down in front of the Majestic Diner, Chilton said.
“I was shaking,” Lewis said.
Cobb County's investigation into the crash and carjackings temporarily blocked a right southbound lane of Cobb Parkway at Bells Ferry Road, according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.
The pedestrian’s name and other details have not yet been released. In addition to Cobb, police in Marietta and Atlanta are involved in the investigation, Chilton said.
Nesby has been charged with two counts each of aggravated assault, armed robbery, and motor vehicle hijacking, Marietta police spokesman Jared Rakestraw said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. She is being held without bond at the Cobb adult detention center. Charges added later include: murder, vehicular homicide, hit-and-run, aggravated assault, reckless driving and failure to maintain lane.
“There were several hit-and-runs, vehicle collisions throughout Cobb County and Atlanta,” Chilton said. “And she also committed several other crimes inside the city of Atlanta and we’re still trying to put it all together and figure out … the whole sequence of events.”
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