Harold Palacios

Name:
Palacios, Harold

Date of Booking:
11/30/2025

Reason(s) For Booking:
Aggravated Assault (Felony)

Aggravated Assault (Felony)

Driving Without a License (Misdemeanor)

Possession of Firearm/Knife During Comm of A Crime

Armed Robbery (Felony)

Armed Robbery (Felony)

Officer’s Narrative:
[Please note: The following is a direct transcription from the official initial incident report. The Georgia Gazette does not fix any spelling or grammatical errors that may exist. Any changes or redactions made by our staff are placed inside brackets. Some errors may exist. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The topics discussed may be sensitive to some readers. Discretion is advised.]

On 11/30/25 at approximately 0327 hours I, Officer Bohannon, responded to a report from a complainant stating that his friend pulled a firearm on him. Dispatch advised that the complainant provided the license plate of the suspect’s vehicle, which was GA #[REDACTED]. The license plate returned to a blue 2007 Volkswagen Jetta.

Using FLOCK, Morning Watch officers tracked this vehicle to [1200 BLOCK] Franklin Dr “Westbury Park Apartments”. While those other officers stopped the vehicle, I addressed the complainant. The complainant, identified as [VICTIM #1], wished to establish communications first by phone call, which was initially handled by Officer A. Johnson. [VICTIM #1] informed Officer A. Johnson that he was at his friend’s residence at [900 BLOCK] Linda Ct. Officer A. Johnson and I traveled to this address and met with [VICTIM #1], and his aforementioned friend, [VICTIM #2], whom we learned was the second victim of the incident.

While I was speaking with both victims and gathering information about the incident, the officers on scene with the vehicle located a Hispanic male and a black male. Concurrent to this, Officer A. Johnson and I each spoke with the two victims separately, and both individuals shared the same story, which is described in full below.

[VICTIM #1] advised Officer A. Johnson that the mentioned rifle was located in his own vehicle’s trunk, as he took it from Harold at the conclusion of the incident. Officer A. Johnson seized the weapon for investigation in accordance to trained safety methods. The rifle was later deposited into evidence at the Marietta Police Department.

The Hispanic male individually described by both respective victims was named as Harold Palacio-Perez. The black male individually described by both respective victims was named as [WITNESS #1]. When I spoke with [VICTIM #1] he named Harold Palacios from memory, and when I spoke with [VICTIM #2] he named Harold Palacios-Perez via a contact in his cell phone. I contacted Officer Boyd, who was on the scene with the vehicle, and provided him with the names of the two other involved individuals in the incident that were in that suspect vehicle.

Officer Boyd confirmed that the two males on the vehicle scene were the same as the ones named by the victims. Officer Boyd informed me that Harold had a bloodied face, which was concurrent with the story provided by [VICTIM #1], who stated that he struck Harold in the face. The officers on the vehicle scene detained both Harold and [WITNESS #1] while the investigation further developed.

The story provided by both victims is as follows:

After both getting off of work at Hemp & Harry’s (168 Roswell St NE), [VICTIM #1] and [VICTIM #2] walked to [VICTIM #1]’s vehicle which was parked in the lot of 170 Anderson St SE. [VICTIM #1] planned to give [VICTIM #2] a ride home in his car, as they were friendly coworkers. While in the midst of entering into [VICTIM #1]’s car -[VICTIM #2] was seated in the front passenger seat and [VICTIM #1] was still standing outside- another vehicle approached and stopped in front, blocking the pair’s planned departure.

Driving this other vehicle, a blue 2007 Volkswagen Jetta (GA #[REDACTED]), was their other coworker they recognized named Harold Palacios-Perez. In the back passenger seat of the Volkswagen with Harold was yet another coworker they knew as [WITNESS #1]. Shouting out the window at [VICTIM #1] and [VICTIM #2] was Harold, who appeared to have been in a state of emotional distress. Harold was shouting at [VICTIM #1] and [VICTIM #2], calling them racists and telling them that they did not understand. [VICTIM #1] observed that Harold was emotionally upset.

The group verbally disputed and tensions escalated. Eventually, Harold stepped out of the vehicle and presented an AR15-style rifle. He took the rifle out of a blue bag, and held the rifle in his hands while exiting his vehicle. Harold did not initially aim the rifle at anyone, and continued to engage the pair in a verbal tirade. After several minutes of this, Harold then aimed the rifle at the heads of [VICTIM #1] and [VICTIM #2]. Harold maintained a continuous aim of the rifle trained on both [VICTIM #1] and [VICTIM #2] for several minutes, as estimated by [VICTIM #1].

During this time, Harold aimed the rifle at [VICTIM #2], who remained seated in the front passenger seat of [VICTIM #1]’s vehicle throughout the incident. Harold demanded [VICTIM #2]’s cell phone, to which [VICTIM #2] complied. Also during this time, [WITNESS #1] began observing what was happening after a delayed understanding of the situation, though he could not see everything while sitting in the vehicle. [WITNESS #1] exited the vehicle and noticed the rifle in Harold’s hands. He attempted to defuse the situation diplomatically, but Harold commanded him to shut up and get back in the vehicle.

Harold then demanded [VICTIM #1]’s car keys after stating that he would take his car, however [VICTIM #1] lost the car keys under the driver seat of his vehicle. [VICTIM #1] searched for his car keys in his vehicle while Harold continued to aim at him, but Harold grew impatient and commanded [VICTIM #1] to get on his knees. [VICTIM #1] understood the severity and potential consequence of this command, and decided to take action. [VICTIM #1] swatted the rifle away and struck Harold in the face with his right fist. The presented threat of Harold was not yet eliminated, so [VICTIM #1] struck Harold 3 more times in the face and seized the rifle away him.

Harold then returned to his vehicle and departed from the scene with [WITNESS #1] having previously returned to the passenger seat. [VICTIM #1], still retaining control of the rifle, retained it in the trunk of his vehicle as he and [VICTIM #2] traveled to [VICTIM #2]’s house at [900 BLOCK] Linda Ct. Harold drove from the incident scene to [1200 BLOCK] Franklin Dr to drop off [WITNESS #1] at his apartment (#[REDACTED]). Shortly after their arrival to this apartment complex, Morning Watch officers tracked and located the vehicle at this address, and promptly detained both occupants with handcuffs amid investigation.

Harold did assume control over [VICTIM #2]’s cell phone during the incident, however [VICTIM #2] managed to regain possession of his phone at an unknown point during the chain of events. Despite demanding the car keys from [VICTIM #1] during the incident, Harold did not manage to assume control of the keys during the incident.

Officers on scene with Harold’s vehicle spoke with [WITNESS #1], and he claimed that the rifle was never pointed at him. [WITNESS #1]’s story indicated that he did not observe the full chain of events of the incident, and that he was uninvolved with the commission of any crime. His only involvement aside from attemping to defuse the situation was merely accepting a ride home from Harold prior to the incident even occurring. Handcuffs were taken off of [WITNESS #1] and he was released from custody.

The victims claimed that neither of them had known lasting issues with Harold. [VICTIM #1] and other coworkers have had to talk Harold down from emotional distress situations on several other prior occasions before, however none of them resulted in any crimes being committed such as that of this incident.

[VICTIM #1] sustained a small cut on the right side of his right fist, as well as his hand being slightly swollen. He declined medical attention. Harold sustained a cut on the left side of his face. Because of this, Officer Boyd transported him to Kennestone Hospital in the rear passenger seat of his patrol vehicle. I traveled to the hospital and met them there, where I assumed custody of Harold. Harold complained of pain around the area of his right knee, as well as pain in his left shoulder. The leg and shoulder pain complaints were presented to me after arrival to Kennestone Hospital. Harold was admitted to the hospital, where custody was turned over to Officer Turner from Day Watch at approximately 0700 hours.

During the investigation and identification of Harold Palacios-Perez, it was discovered that he did not possess a valid GA driver’s license. His only form of possessed identification was a Guatemalan passport. I asked Harold at the hospital in Spanish, which was his primary language, if he had a driver’s license and he stated that he did not.

The victims claimed that there were no witnesses to the incident. I attempted to look for cameras in the immediate area that would have captured the incident, however I did not observe any cameras on the exteriors of the immediate surrounding buildings. Video footage retrieval from potential cameras in the incident area is still being investigated upon the time of this report.

I delivered the cap gun initially collected and described by Officer Funes into evidence at the Marietta Police Department.

I delivered the blue gun bag and firearm accessories initially collected by Officer Boyd into evidence at the Marietta Police Department.

Officer A. Johnson collected and deposited the rifle into evidence at the Marietta Police Department.

I spoke with a judge from the Cobb County Magistrate Court, who issued arrest warrant #25-W-10141 on Harold Palacios-Perez on the charges of:

OCGA 16-5-21(a)(1) AGGRAVATED ASSAULT Intent To Murder
OCGA 16-5-21(a)(2) AGGRAVATED ASSAULT Deadly Weapon
OCGA 16-8-41 ARMED ROBBERY – 2 Counts
OCGA 40-5-20(a) DRIVING WITHOUT VALID DRIVER’S LICENSE
OCGA 16-11-106(b)(1) POSSESSION OF FIREARM DURING CRIME

All respective and corresponding paperwork was delivered to the front desk of the Marietta Police Department.

[End of Narrative]