Mom pulls 4-year-old from moving car as man steals it from Macon gas station, cops say

A woman pulled her 4-year-old from a car as it was being stolen from a Macon gas station Friday afternoon.

The woman was putting air in a tire when the man slipped in behind the wheel, a Bibb County sheriff’s official said in an email.

Justin Roland Copeland, 28, of Macon, was arrested minutes later after a short chase by Bibb deputies, according to a sheriff’s office news release.

But not before Copeland let the stolen blue Honda Civic roll into the side of a nearby motel where a woman was inside when the car hit the wall, the release said.

Here’s how the episode unfolded, according to the release:

Deputies were dispatched to the Sunoco on Pio Nono Avenue after a 911 call of a man taking a car with a child inside at 3:41 p.m.

While on the way, deputies were notified that the boy’s mother had pulled him out of the moving car through a door, according to the email.

Deputies spotted and attempted to pull over the stolen car on Eisenhower Parkway near Pio Nono Avenue, but Copeland refused to stop and led deputies on a short chase, the release said.

Copeland pulled into America’s Best Inns and Suites where he was taken into custody.

A woman inside the hotel room was taken to the Medical Center, Navicent Health, with “complaints of injuries and checked out okay,” the email said.

The mother and child were taken to a Navicent Health Med Stop. “They checked out okay,” according to the email.

Copeland was charged with theft by taking auto, kidnapping, first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated assault and criminal damage to property. He was being held without bond Saturday morning at the Bibb County jail.

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at 478-751-7500, or Macon Regional Crimestoppers at 1-877-68CRIME.

This story was originally published March 7, 2020 at 9:00 AM.