Kidnapping suspect leads police on high speed chase

MARIETTA — A man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman led officers on a high speed chase through Marietta on Sunday morning in a van he allegedly stole from her, police said.

The chase ended on South Cobb Drive between Fairground Street and Atlanta Road after the older model Dodge Ram van, driven by 27-year-old Andrew Head, slammed into a woman’s Acura SUV, investigators said.

Both drivers were conscious and alert following the wreck, according to Officer Chuck McPhilamy, spokesman for the Marietta Police Department.

McPhilamy said Marietta police received a 911 call just after 9 a.m. from a woman claiming she had been sexually assaulted by the Marietta man. The woman told police Head took her van and that she was hiding inside the bathroom of a Texaco gas station across from the Cobb County Civic Center.

Police spotted the van along South Marietta Parkway near Cobb Parkway and a chase ensued.

“The driver of the van was already driving very aggressively,” McPhilamy said. “(Police) got behind the van and the vehicle fled the area.”

Because of the violent nature of the allegations against Head, officers were given permission to pursue the van, which evaded them at high speeds, once even driving toward oncoming traffic in a divided portion of South Cobb Drive, McPhilamy said.