Neighbor says woman asking for help before barricade

Fox - 5 Atlanta
12 followers
Nov 2, 2026
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County where one person is in custody after a barricade situation.
Good Monday afternoon and
thank you so much for trusting us with your news.
I'm Alex Whitler. Police blocked off several roads
near Lithonia High School following reports
of a barricaded person at a home on Victoria Place.
And Fox says Hernan Gutierrez joins us live
from DeKalb County with the very latest information.
Hernan, what are you learning?
Hey, Alex, and we actually just heard
from DeKalb County Police moments ago.
We now know that the suspect who was barricaded inside
of this house behind me is 25-year-old Tavian Hartwell.
This whole situation started at about 1 last night,
1:16, early this morning, rather.
And police say that they were originally...
Called to this area for the report of an assault in this address
in this area, SWAT officers eventually responded
and the police evacuated nearby homes.
The suspect was given multiple chances to leave the house.
But as you can see from the video that we're showing you now, there
was a lot of damage trying to get this person out of the house here.
We first got to the scene around 6:30. This
A morning and the entire perimeter around
this area broke down at about 10 this morning.
So this is very a long standing situation going here.
I actually ended up speaking with a neighbor
who lived through the entire situation.
And he says at about 1 this morning,
he had a woman knock on his door asking for help
from a man that was trying to hurt her.
He also saw that man sneaking around the neighborhood.
That man, the neighbor I spoke to, his name is Mateo Lloyd.
He says he's glad he was still alive.
While he was still over there,
I kind of snuck us into the garage here and told her to duck down
and I ducked down as well so the light wouldn't show
and it wouldn't make too much noise to alert him where she was.
And then so I ended up calling the police.
Now Lloyd says he overheard that man.
Had at least two guns on him, and now police are confirming
that that man did have guns on his person at that time.
He also tells us that he heard a series of bangs this morning
as police were trying to get that man, Hartwell, now into custody.
Hartwell is facing a number of charges, including aggravated assault,
battery, possession of a firearm, and obstruction of justice.
We haven't heard exactly what condition Hartwell is in.
So we're still looking into that of what entirely played out here.
In DeKalb County, Hernan Gutierrez, Fox 5 News.
Before we get learning more from you.
