Man kidnaps 18-month-old and flees across state lines before he’s shot dead, cops say

A man kidnapped an 18-month-old in Georgia and fled police until he was killed in a shootout in Tennessee, authorities said.

The 31-year-old man accused of the abduction has been identified as Tyler L. Roberts, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a Jan. 29 news release.

The pursuit began the evening of Jan. 28 in Catoosa County, Georgia, where deputies said Roberts kidnapped the toddler while armed and led law enforcement on a chase along Interstate 75.

As Roberts crossed the northern Georgia border into Tennessee, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said in a Jan. 28 news release that it began assisting in the pursuit.

Tennessee deputies reported using spike strips to deflate the vehicle’s tires before boxing Roberts in near Ooltewah.

Once they deployed the spikes, authorities said the man started shooting at deputies, who fired back. The suspect was fatally wounded, and two deputies were shot.

The 18-month-old wasn’t seriously injured in the incident, the sheriff’s office said. The deputies, whose names aren’t being released, were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“While it is early in the investigative phase of this incident, it is apparent this individual was intent on getting away from authorities and clearly didn’t care who he endangered in the process,” Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett said in the release. “I am grateful the child is safe, and our deputies only sustained non-life-threatening injuries.”

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is reviewing the incident. McClatchy News could not immediately confirm the relationship between the toddler and the man who was killed.

Ooltewah is about 20 miles northeast of Chattanooga.

This story was originally published January 29, 2024 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Man kidnaps 18-month-old and flees across state lines before he’s shot dead, cops say."