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Last updated December 14, 2022 @ 4:03 PM ET
The following was taken from a press release distributed by the Marietta Police Department:
Cobb County (December 14, 2022) – Tuesday morning, December 6, 2022, Tomeka Harris drove to the local grocery store to do some grocery shopping. Around the same time, Randy Harmon, a convicted felon, was planning a much different activity.
Harmon pulled into the grocery store parking lot roughly ten minutes before Harris arrived, just after 9:00 AM. Harmon initially parked off to the side, in a remote parking spot, and waited inside the vehicle he was driving. As soon as Harris parked her vehicle and walked into the store, Harmon relocated his vehicle and parked immediately next to Harris’s. When Harris returned with her groceries and opened her driver’s side door, Harmon approached her from behind, and forced her into her vehicle and over the center counsel at gunpoint.
Harris made the choice to fight back, and not simply follow Harmon’s orders. During the struggle, Harmon entered the driver’s side of Harris’s vehicle and began to navigate it out of the parking lot. Harris was able to open her passenger side door as Harmon accelerated out of the parking lot. Harris tumbled out of her vehicle to safety, suffering only minor injuries.
Officers from MPD as well as the Cobb County Police Department (CCPD) began searching the area for the stolen vehicle. Within an hour of the carjacking, CCPD officers located it parked in a subdivision with all of Harris’s belongings still inside.
Later that evening, CCPD officers on patrol located a different stolen vehicle, using license plate reader (LPR) technology, and arrested the driver, Randy Harmon, for possession of a stolen vehicle and other traffic related charges.
MPD investigators, with the use of video surveillance and LPR technology, were able to verify the stolen vehicle Harmon was driving, was in fact the same vehicle he used to drive into the grocery store parking lot that morning. Through the use of technology and interagency teamwork, Harmon will also now be held accountable for the following charges: Attempted Kidnapping (F), Hijacking A Motor Vehicle (F), Aggravated Assault Weapon (F), Possession Firearm Felon (F), Possession of Firearm During Commission of a Crime (F).
Chief Ferrell noted: “The Marietta Police Department would like to publicly commend Tomeka Harris for her determination, courage, and resilience in the face of danger. Law Enforcement agencies preach RUN HIDE FIGHT and/or AVOID DENY DEFEND regularly, and Ms. Harris absolutely used those same principles while being attacked by a man with a gun. We are grateful that she is safe, and that her property was all recovered. A crime like this does not typically occur in Cobb, and the interagency collaboration as well as investment the city and surrounding jurisdictions have made in LPR cameras definitely aided in our ability to hold this criminal accountable!”
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