FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — Many across metro Atlanta were suddenly jolted out of their sleep by the emergency tone on their phones after an Amber Alert was issued overnight.
Roswell Police said around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 20, a woman and her 4-year-old son were kidnapped.
Detectives were able to develop a suspect throughout the evening, who was identified as 40-year-old Brian Betenia of Roswell.
Almost seven hours after the kidnapping, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued a Levi's Call, which is the same as an Amber Alert in Georgia.
Shortly after the state-wide alert was issued, Roswell Police received information that the suspect was in the Forsyth County area. The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office was notified, and deputies were put on alert.
Almost 40 minutes after the alert went out, Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman said his crime suppression unit spotted the suspect's vehicle in the area of Highway 141 near the Fulton County line.
Sheriff Freeman said once deputies were able to confirm the SUV was, in fact, the suspect's vehicle, they initiated a traffic stop on Betenia, but he refused to pull over.
The sheriff's office released an edited video of the pursuit on Wednesday afternoon.
You can see Betenia driving recklessly as deputies come up with a plan to box him in. Sheriff Freeman said typically, his deputies would perform a PIT maneuver to force a suspect facing felony charges to stop, but knowing there was a child in the vehicle, they didn't want to intentionally hurt anyone.
After several attempts to block Betenia in as the pursuit headed up Ga 400, a deputy threw out a spike strip to try and deflate the SUV's tires.
A short time after Betenia hit the spike strip, he stopped in the area of Highway 369 in the county.
In the dash cam video, you can see Betenia running from the vehicle and running into a Forsyth County deputy's SUV. Betenia then bounced back up and was Tazed a short time later and put into handcuffs.
Other deputies in the pursuit were able to get the woman and child who were inside his SUV to a safe place.
Sheriff Freeman said he's proud of his deputies for bringing this to a conclusion with no one being hurt. He said several times during the ordeal that Betenia said he was not going back to jail and said he made statements that he was going to crash the vehicle and kill everyone.
Forsyth County charged Betenia with a dozen charges, including driving under the influence of alcohol.
While he's facing those charges stemming from the pursuit, Roswell Police also charged him in connection with the kidnapping.
Roswell Police confirmed to 11Alive Betenia is facing more than a dozen charges in connection to an ongoing child pornography investigation.
Police said they recently received a cybertip through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). That investigation led them to get a search warrant for Betenia's home.
Detectives said during the search, they found child sexual abuse materials which led to more than a dozen child pornography charges in July. He was arrested on July 23.
Court records show he was released on bond on Aug. 1.
Roswell Police confirmed on the day of the kidnapping, they brought an additional two charges against Betenia in connection to the ongoing child pornography investigation.
Detectives say they stemmed from the seizure of his electronic devices, which were being analyzed in the days and weeks since the search warrant was issued at his home.
As of Wednesday night, Betenia remained in the Forsyth County jail but will eventually be extradited back to Fulton County Jail.