In what Marietta police called a “night of chaos,” officers responded to the same apartment complex four separate times Sunday night for a variety of complaints related to two suspects who were ultimately arrested after an hours-long SWAT standoff.
The calls began just before 8:30 p.m. with a hit-and-run crash at a QuikTrip near the Franklin at East Cobb apartments on Franklin Gateway, Marietta police spokesman Officer Chuck McPhilamy said in a statement. The 911 caller told police another car hit hers, and she followed the driver about a half-mile to the complex.
The victim followed the suspect’s car through the apartment gate and both stopped inside, McPhilamy said. The suspect, later identified as 24-year-old Amari Monique Perkins, got out of her car and confronted the victim. According to police, Perkins hit the victim in the chest and face, then ran away.
Responding officers took the victim’s statement but could not find Perkins, so they left without making an arrest. Perkins is not a resident of the apartment complex, McPhilamy said.
Not long after the officers left, at about 10 p.m., another resident of the Franklin called 911 to report a domestic disturbance, complaining that someone was “intoxicated and screaming,” McPhilamy said. Officers responded to find the caller “extremely agitated,” but no suspect was found, according to police. The caller asked the officers to leave, so they returned to their posts.
About 20 minutes later, officers were called back to the same apartment. The caller said someone had forced open their front door, but when police arrived, the caller once again would not cooperate with the officers. Police were able to talk with a family member of the caller who said they would try to resolve the situation, McPhilamy said. So the officers left the apartment complex for the third time.
The last call came about an hour and a half later, just before midnight, McPhilamy said. This time, officers responded to a different unit after getting reports of a domestic disturbance, including sounds of gunfire.
Two people from the apartment met police and cooperated with the investigation. They told officers they had been there when a confrontation began and said they had left two men and a woman inside the unit, according to police. Officers later found that the woman was Perkins.
Perkins and the two men refused to cooperate, leading officers to call in the Marietta SWAT unit, according to police. They were safely removed “over the next few hours,” McPhilamy said.
Perkins was arrested on charges from the suspected hit-and-run incident, McPhilamy said. The second occupant of the apartment was not charged.
The third occupant, 23-year-old Roland Cody Lopez, was arrested on multiple charges related to the SWAT standoff and the two other incidents earlier in the night, McPhilamy said. Lopez is facing felony charges of first-degree burglary, second-degree criminal damage to property and making terroristic threats, as well as misdemeanor counts of obstruction and reckless conduct.
Perkins and Lopez were booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center. Perkins is being held on bond of just over $4,000, while Lopez is being held on bond of nearly $30,000, online jail records show.
All of the 911 callers from throughout the night began cooperating with police after Perkins and Lopez were arrested, McPhilamy said. No further charges or arrests are expected.
