Background: The Shell gas station in Savannah, Georgia, where police arrived on February 3rd (Google Maps). Inset: Twan Maurice Byrd (Chatham County Sheriff’s Office).
A Georgia man faces several felony charges after prosecutors said he stole his wife’s SUV then hit her with it several times.
Twan Maurice Byrd, whose age has not been disclosed, was formally charged on Wednesday following his February arrest related to an incident with his wife. As detailed in a bill of indictment examined by Law&Crime, Byrd took his wife’s Chevy Equinox on February 3rd. An arrest report from The Georgia Gazette, a local publication, mentioned that witnesses observed Byrd striking his wife with the SUV multiple times and attempting to run her over while she was on the sidewalk.
The report further stated that witnesses saw Byrd reverse over his wife before she escaped into a nearby car wash. Byrd is then alleged to have struck her again, abandoning both his gravely injured wife and the vehicle in the car wash, fleeing the scene on foot.
The indictment indicates that Byrd not only used the SUV to hit his wife but also strangled and punched her in the face. The arrest records revealed that officers found Byrd’s wife “bleeding profusely from her nose and mouth” with a broken leg. She managed to identify Byrd as her attacker prior to being hospitalized.
Prosecutors said that the injuries to the woman’s right leg were “seriously disfiguring.”
In their indictment, prosecutors claim Byrd tried to stop his wife from testifying against him in their divorce case in Chatham County’s Superior Court by illicitly promising her anything she wanted if she refrained from testifying. Byrd faces allegations of stalking his wife by making “harassing and intimidating” phone calls to her.
Charges against Byrd include hijacking a motor vehicle, attempting to commit murder, kidnapping, witness tampering, stalking, obstructing an officer, and three counts of aggravated battery. He is currently held at the Chatham County Jail without the option of bond.
He is scheduled to be arraigned in court on Oct. 1.
