A barefoot man carrying a big stick who allegedly had darted in and out of rush-hour traffic on I-285 in the northern Perimeter area was in custody facing multiple charges Wednesday, including aggravated assault for biting a police officer.
Andre Thelwell, 22, of Conyers, arrested Tuesday afternoon on the expressway near Peachtree Dunwoody Road, also faces charges of obstruction and being a pedestrian on a highway, Dunwoody police said.
Calls about a man running in and out of traffic on the interstate started coming in to Sandy Springs and Dunwoody police around 4:30 p.m.
When officers located the suspect, he ran onto I-285, crossing the eastbound lanes and jumping the median wall before stopping in the westbound lanes. Police confronted the man there and, after a struggle in which a Dunwoody officer had to use his Taser, took him into custody.
The man bit a Sandy Springs officer during the arrest, and the officer was treated and released from a local hospital, Sandy Springs police Lt. Steve Rose said.
Thelwell was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. He was in stable condition Thursday and was to undergo a mental evaluation, Dunwoody police spokeswoman Officer Kelly Boyer told the AJC.
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