When a wanted man led police on a seven-mile car chase Thursday from southeast Marietta into a Buckhead neighborhood, he had a 2-month-old in the backseat, according to arrest warrants.
Police say Marquez Wright, a 27-year-old from Mableton, drove on the shoulder of the road in a gold Ford Fusion. He weaved in and out of traffic and struck an officer with the driver’s side-mirror as he made his initial escape from a Motel 6 parking lot along Delk Road in Marietta, charging affidavits allege.
When he reached the road, he hit speeds above 90 mph, according to the warrant.
The chase came to an abrupt end in the 3600 block of Nancy Creek Road in the Paces neighborhood of north Atlanta, just feet from the front door of Bill White.
The chairman of the Buckhead City Committee, a group leading the affluent suburb’s push to secede from Atlanta, snapped photos of the 2-month-old after the baby survived the wild car chase. A picture showing the child being cradled by a police officer at the scene of the arrest was one of several that White posted on his Instagram page.
White said his landscaper was “nearly killed” by one of the police officers chasing Wright. According to Marietta police spokespersons, the officer struck the landscaper while trying to make a sharp turn near Nancy Creek Road in the midst of the mid-afternoon pursuit.
Police charged Wright with aggravated assault on an officer, felony obstruction, second-degree cruelty to child, reckless driving and fleeing or attempting to elude law enforcement.
Prior to the chase, he was wanted on two outstanding warrants stemming from an August 2021 hit-and-run in Powder Springs and a separate November domestic incident out of Cobb County.
Smyrna police sought Wright on traffic-related charges tied to an Aug. 29 hit-and-run. According to the Smyrna warrant, Wright jumped out of his car and walked away from a crash on Powder Springs Road near South Cobb Drive.
Cobb police filed battery and aggravated assault-strangulation charges against Wright on Nov. 28, the same day a 26-year-old woman accused him of punching her in the face and grabbing her by the neck during a domestic dispute.
The victim said Wright choked her to the point she couldn’t breathe. His alleged attack came seven days after the woman gave birth, according to reports from Cobb police. She told officers he took her car without her permission and left.
Wright remained in custody at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center late Tuesday afternoon, according to booking records.
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