Police believe that the 37-year-old male driver may have been experiencing a mental health crisis as he intentionally crashed into car after car
2 hours ago
Police say that a man from Athens, Georgia allegedly smashed into 30 different cars with a Mercedes G500. Video from the incident shows the posh SUV smashing into car after car in a very intentional way. Authorities charged the man with 28 separate counts of criminal damage to property.
That man is a 37-year-old who may or may not own the white Mercedes in question. A number of residents from around the Berkeley Hills Estates neighborhood near Pond Road in Duluth, Georgia captured the action on camera. A local police officer, Cpl. Ryan Winderweedle, confirmed as much and more to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
“Several residents starting sharing videos online of a Mercedes G500 smashing into cars in driveways,” Winderweedle said. “Some people reporting hearing gunshots. The vehicle and the suspect had fled the neighborhood before officers arrived on scene. Officers took reports for 28 victims, having a total of 30 vehicles along with other property damaged.”
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Today in Duluth someone in a white G-Wagon went from driveway to driveway crashing into cars in the neighborhood.
pic.twitter.com/GI5b9t4GTI
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) August 21, 2023
One of those witnesses was Salvador Gomez, a landscape worker who told his team to hide when the group spotted the 37-year-old. “I don’t know what to say but it’s really crazy,” Gomez said to WSB-TV. “You didn’t know what he was going to do.”
Police say that they arrested the Merc driver at a local McDonald’s about four miles from where the crashes occurred. The Mercedes was next door at a tire shop. Authorities didn’t provide a stated motive behind the odd behavior but did say that he may have been experiencing a mental health episode.
It’s one thing to have intrusive thoughts about potentially pushing someone out of one’s way in traffic with a big SUV. It’s another thing entirely to allow a similarly destructive intrusive thought to lead one to such action. Hopefully, the man is getting the attention he needs both from authorities and mental health professionals.