Marietta SWAT Standoff: 2 People Rescued, Man Wanted In WI Charged

MARIETTA, GA — Text messages to 911 led Marietta police to an apartment where a Wisconsin man was holding a teen and a child hostage Thursday, Marietta police said.

Officers were dispatched around 3:30 p.m. to The Falls at Sope Creek Apartments in the 1900 block of Roswell Road, police said.

A person sent text messages to Cobb County dispatchers asking for help. The first text message read, "He has threatened me and my children and there are weapons present in the house," police said.

The person texted dispatchers for the next several minutes, notifying them that the man living inside of the apartment had guns and drugs, police said. The person also told them a 7-year-old girl was in the apartment with him, police said.

Dispatchers were also told several video surveillance cameras were installed inside and outside of the apartment and "for officers to be careful as the suspect would likely try to escape," police said.

The person sending the texts feared for their safety and said the man had multiple warrants from two other states, police said.

Chuck McPhilamy, public information officer with the Marietta Police Department, confirmed a 19-year-old who was inside of the apartment did not send the text messages.

"She met him recently and was inside the apartment when we arrived, and said she was being intimidated not to leave and was afraid for her own safety," McPhilamy said.

Officers said the apartment's front door was open when they arrived, and they smelled marijuana coming from the inside of the apartment. The door was slammed shut after officers announced their presence.

A search warrant was secured around 8:15 p.m., and the front door was breached around 8:30 p.m., police said. Then, both the child and teen were able to escape uninjured, McPhilamy said.

The teen and child were known to the man, police said.

It is unknown what happened in the hours from the initial arrival of police to the search warrant being executed.

The SWAT team was called in around 9:30 p.m. after authorities learned the man had created multiple ways to prevent entry into the apartment, police said. That is when neighboring apartments were evacuated for safety.

SWAT officers failed to contact the man after multiple attempts to get him to surrender, and after several hours, the SWAT team entered and searched the apartment, police said.

Officers found the man in a makeshift "safe room," which he made inside of a bedroom closet, police said.

Police said the man continued to be non-compliant, after which SWAT officers deployed a taser and arrested him around 12:45 a.m. Friday. Police said no weapons were found.

Police identified the man as Durrell Harris, 35, of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Police said Harris has outstanding warrants in Wisconsin. It is unknown what type of warrants he is wanted on.

Harris was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and was charged on suspicion of obstruction/hindering, false imprisonment and three counts of Violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act for marijuana, cocaine and MDMA possession, police said.