MOULTRIE — A Colquitt County resident called 911 on her son for kidnapping her mother — his grandmother — and holding her hostage at gunpoint.
At 1:30 p.m. Feb. 28, Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office was informed by 911 dispatch about an unwanted person on Cox Avenue.
“The mother called in because her son had shown up at her house when he knew he wasn’t supposed to be there,” said CCSO Investigator Will Pierce. “He had grandma drive him there in her vehicle.”
Before authorities arrived however, the 23-year-old climbed back into the vehicle with his 76-year-old grandmother, this time with him behind the wheel, and took off.
Prior to the call for help, the grandmother drove the grandson out into the woods behind his mother’s house, the grandson then proceeded to exit the car and fired multiple shots toward the direction of the house his mother and her boyfriend were in at the time.
After firing the gun several times, he climbed back in the vehicle and drove away with his grandmother. That’s when the grandmother called her daughter with disturbing news:
Her grandson had stolen the .38-caliber revolver that had belonged to her late husband — his grandfather — and was now holding her hostage with it.
The 47-year-old called 911 immediately with another line so they could help her mother, and acted as spokesperson between the two.
That is, until the grandson grabbed the phone from his grandmother’s hands and chucked it out the window.
“All we knew was a general area,” said Pierce. “Somewhere off Tree Farm Road between Highway 111 and Lower Meigs.”
Once again driving to a remote location in the woods, the grandson is believed to have emptied the revolver and disposed of it.
By this point, all officers — both CCSO and Moultrie Police Department — were searching for the grandmother’s vehicle so the situation could be handled.
The woman’s daughter, who was also helping to search for the vehicle, spotted it. By this time she was on the phone with Pierce relaying information about what she knew.
The daughter began following her son and grandmother, giving the location to law enforcement. A short time time later, Sheriff Rod Howell in an unmarked vehicle got behind the pair. Not knowing how the grandson would respond, the sheriff waited until more officers arrived at their location before trying to apprehend the grandson and help the grandmother’s ordeal come to an end.
Once it was safe to do so, a plethora of officers surrounded the vehicle and proceeded to safely extract the grandmother and place the grandson in handcuffs.
“He did not resist,” said Pierce. “Though she was shaken up, Grandma was okay and denied going to the hospital.”
Taken to the Colquitt County jail, the grandson is facing a total of eight charges. Four of them are felonies: kidnapping, false imprisonment, aggravated assault of a person over 65 and possession of a firearm during commission of a crime. The grandson is also being charged with the following four misdemeanors: theft by taking, two counts of reckless conduct and criminal trespass.
“The motivations for his actions are still unknown,” said Pierce. “We are still trying to figure out exactly why things escalated as quickly as they did.”