ATLANTA (WXIA) -- Police say Donte Wyatt left a violent path of destruction. He was on the run, hiding from police, when he ran into Wilson. That's where the crime spree ended.
Wilson, a blue blood bulldog, was protecting his owner when Wyatt broke into their home. But police tell 11Alive's Rebecca Lindstrom Wyatt's criminal history started long before that canine run-in.
In jail records, Donte Wyatt lists McDonough as his home city. Henry County Police know him well; he's been arrested nearly a dozen times for crimes ranging from trespassing, failure to pay child support, robbery, battery, and domestic violence.
Henry County police say Wyatt's recent crime spree started Monday morning when he stabbed his wife in the parking lot of a Stockbridge Waffle House. She had surgery and remains in stable condition.
Wyatt was on the run. Police say he made it up to Atlanta in a rented truck. That's where they say he broke into a home on Shadowridge Drive, killed the woman who lived there.
On Tuesday, police were still not releasing the woman's name, nor any other details of what happened.
But police were able to track Wyatt to her home, and they arrived almost in time to arrest him there. Wyatt jumped into the woman's car, drove it a short distance, crashed it, then ran away.
He ran into another neighborhood about a mile away -- and entered the wrong home: one guarded by Wilson.
Adra Wilson was upstairs when she heard Wyatt breaking into her home. She called 911, and police told her to keep still. They were on the way. Meanwhile, Wilson had things covered.
"He just basically acted as a deterrent, and kept the intruder from coming upstairs," said Adra's husband, Eric Wilson.
Police were able to rescue Adra while the suspect was in the basement. After a four-hour standoff, they lobbed tear gas into the house. The suspect came running into their arms -- and away from the Wilsons' bulldog.
"They say the dog bit him a couple of times, just kept him at bay," Eric said.
Tuesday evening, the father of Donte Wyatt's estranged wife talked with 11Alive's Jon Shirek.
Tyrone Tiller spoke in detail what happened to his daughter, Heather Wyatt, after she agreed to meet Donte Monday morning; Donte had told her he wanted to return something that belonged to her.
"She thought she picked a good place to meet, at the Waffle House," Tiller said.
Tiller described a troubled marriage, and he said when the couple separated, Donte stalked Heather, and frightened her to the point that she feared for her life. Tiller said he began escorting Heather everywhere, and she moved forward with attempts to obtain a restraining order. Tiller told her she should get a gun.
Monday morning, Tiller said, Donte confronted Heather in that Waffle House parking lot: "He told her he was going to kill her."
Tiller said Donte pulled out a knife and stabbed Heather repeatedly in her legs, torso and chest. She tried to run away, shouting for someone to call 911.
And then, "She said he stabbed her in the back, and he left the knife in her back, and she said she pulled the knife out of her back," Tiller said.
That's when, police say, Donte fled into DeKalb County and continued his crime spree.
Tiller said Donte is full of rage, and initially planned to kidnap Heather when he met her at the Waffle House, then kill her elsewhere.
"He had duct tape, he had straps, he was going to strap her down and take her somewhere and kill her. But she told me, she said, 'Dad, I'm lucky to be alive, because he was intending to kill me.'"
Tiller expects Heather will be released from the hospital in a few days, and she will then continue her recovery at home.
And he said they are both heartbroken over the woman who was killed.
"He needs to be locked up. And I don't think -- I mean, throw away the key. And plus, I don't think he needs to never get out."
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