One Arrested, One Escaped Following Midtown Break-In

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Credit: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

One person was arrested earlier this month after police allegedly caught him inside of a home in Midtown he and his friend had broken into.

An Atlanta police officer was dispatched to a home in the 300 block of 9th Street in the evening hours of June 19 in reference to two suspicious males in the neighborhood. The homeowner told police a neighbor had seen the men in the yard and noticed that his burglar alarm and motion detector lights had activated just as the officer came on scene, the police report says.

The officer entered the home and opened the door to the back porch to see a suspect jumping over the fence to get away from the scene. He then heard someone banging on a door in a room at the rear of the home. The officer announced his presence and opened the door, but the man inside pulled the door shut and held it, the report says. The officer had to use his shoulder to open the door, which knocked the man backwards.

After the suspect showed his hands to the officer, the officer holstered his sidearm. The suspect then charged at the officer, who was able to wrestle the suspect to the ground and arrest him.

The police report states that the suspect, identified as Christopher McGriff, told the officer that the crime had been his friend’s idea. McGriff told the officer that his friend thought the home had items worth stealing, so they hopped the fence to look in the back windows. McGriff entered the bathroom just as the motion detection lights went on and the officer stepped on to the back porch; McGriff said he had hoped he could hide out in the bathroom until the officer left the home.

McGriff gave the officer his friend’s name and date of birth, saying that he wasn’t going to go down alone, according to the report. McGriff has been charged with first degree burglary and willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer.