Bartow County deputies arrested a 32-year-old man on suspicions he rammed his girlfriend’s vehicle off the road.
Dispatch informed a Bartow County deputy just past midnight on Friday; a silver Kia Soul’s driver was chasing his girlfriend in a silver van. He was trying to run her off the roadway on State Route 293 southbound past Hamilton Crossing Road.
Dispatch then stated the Kia Soul had struck the female’s van, which ran her off the road and caused her to flip over just past Mac Johnson Road.
The deputy located the overturned vehicle and saw a female upside down. She stated she was disoriented, but OK. She said the male driver in the Kia Soul, Matthew Aaron Tanner kept going southbound down 293.
She stated she went to her boyfriend’s house on Spring Creek Circle near Adairsville because he had suicidal tendencies. She asked him if she could take him to the hospital. Tanner reportedly became irate with her and struck her in the face with a closed fist.
After he allegedly struck her in the mouth, she stated she left the residence to go home to her parents in Alabama. She stopped at Hamilton Crossing Park because she was upset and felt the need to pull over to gather herself to make the trip home.
While she was sitting in the parking lot, she saw Tanner driving up to her vehicle. So she turned her van around and headed into town on State Route 293. She called 911, and while she was on the phone, she stated he started hitting her vehicle, and then she flipped.
She said he stopped for just a second, yelled out he was sorry, then left the scene.
When a wrecker company placed the van on a tow truck, the deputy noticed a fresh paint swap on its driver’s side.
Responding units went to a residence on Joe Frank Harris Parkway south of Adairsville and located Matthew Tanner. A deputy secured warrants for aggravated assault for using the vehicle as a deadly weapon against his girlfriend, and simple battery for the strike to the face with visible harm.
After the warrants were secured, they took Tanner into custody. The Kia Soul he allegedly used in the assault was not on the scene, but there was a Kia key fob on his person.