SWAT team called out to Buford for man holed up with 3-year-old

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
© Copyright 2013 Gwinnett Daily Post

BUFORD - Members of the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department SWAT team arrested a Buford man who'd barricaded himself inside his home with a 3-year-old child Tuesday, authorities said.

Fabian Enrique Lopez-Martinez is charged with false imprisonment and battery - stemming from an earlier altercation with a woman - and could face additional charges pending an investigation, Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Stacey Bourbonnais said.

The ordeal began Tuesday when a female acquaintance of Lopez-Martinez showed up at the Sheriff's Department with "very obvious injuries to her face and eyes," Bourbonnais said.

When Sheriff's deputies attempted to serve warrants on Lopez-Martinez at his Lois Drive home, the suspect allegedly refused to come out. The SWAT team was activated when deputies learned he was holding the child captive and was possibly armed, Bourbonnais said.

"The SWAT team was able to get the child out of the residence unharmed and took (the suspect) into custody without further incident," she said.

Lopez-Martinez's relationship with the child was unclear Tuesday evening.

A Sheriff's deputy responding to the SWAT call was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries when a motorist pulled in front of the truck he was driving, Bourbonnais said.

The deputy, who was not identified, swerved to miss the motorist, and an armored carrier trailing the truck rolled into a ditch, she said.

The motorist, Maria Del Carmen Sanchez-Martinez, of Sugar Hill, was arrested on charges of driving without a license. Other charges could be pending, Bourbonnais said.

Gwinnett Daily Post