Police: Man threatened woman with screwdriver

A Tunnel Hill, Ga., man was arrested Sunday after he allegedly threatened a woman with a screwdriver.

Karen Sutton told police her daughter’s boyfriend, Jimmy Betancourt, threatened her with the tool when she tried to kick him out of the house. She said Betancourt then chased his girlfriend and crashed his car into a neighbor’s vehicle in a rage.

The dispute began around noon Sunday, according to a Dalton Police Department incident report. Betancourt told investigators he drove to Sutton’s house on the 1500 block of Shady Lane with his girlfriend and children to drop them off. He said Sutton began to argue with him and she told him to get out of the house.

Sutton told police she kicked Betancourt out because she didn’t want any problems to develop in her home.

“She didn’t want him around her family,” a Dalton officer wrote in an incident report.

Sutton said Betancourt got mad when she told him to leave. She said he retreated to his vehicle and pulled a screwdriver

out of the trunk.

“I am going to show you what we do to people in prison,” Sutton said Betancourt told her.

Sutton, in response, picked up a stick. She said her daughter ran away and Betancourt chased her. Sutton’s daughter got into a neighbor’s car, and the neighbor tried to run away. Betancourt got into his own car and drove toward them, Sutton told police.

The neighbor, Clarissa Love, told police Betancourt crashed his car into the side of her vehicle. He yelled at his girlfriend and told her to get out of Love’s car. His girlfriend stayed inside. Betancourt opened his own door when police arrived, Love said.

“She was terrified because she had no idea what Betancourt was about to do,” an officer wrote of Love.

Dalton police charged Betancourt with three counts of aggravated assault, one count of improper driving and one count of driving without a license. He remained in the Whitfield County Jail without bond Monday afternoon.