Georgia mom turns gas pump into weapon against alleged child snatcher

BS BRIEF:

Surveillance video shows a Georgia mother using a gas pump hose to defend her children from a shirtless, barefoot stranger who allegedly tried to pull them from the family’s vehicle.
Police arrested 30-year-old Jerahn Rashad Tucker shortly after he fled. He faces attempted kidnapping, assault and controlled-substance charges and was being held without bond.
A mother’s quick response—and two strangers willing to help—may have prevented an unthinkable tragedy.

GEORGIA MOM TURNS GAS PUMP INTO WEAPON AGAINST ALLEGED CHILD SNATCHER

A Georgia mother went to a gas station for fuel and suddenly found herself fighting to keep a stranger away from her children.

Newly released surveillance footage shows the terrifying confrontation at a Shell station on Delk Road in Marietta shortly after midnight on July 23.

Police say 30-year-old Jerahn Rashad Tucker, who appeared shirtless and barefoot, approached the woman as she pumped gas and initially began speaking with her.

Then the situation changed. “He appears to charge at the car,” Marietta Police spokesman Charles McPhilamy said. “He’s trying to open the car doors. He’s trying to pull the child out of the back seat.”

According to an arrest warrant, the mother told investigators Tucker claimed to have a gun. The video shows him circling the vehicle and looking through its windows as one child jumps out and runs around the car.

Tucker appears to pursue the child before opening a rear door where the woman’s second child remained seated. The warrant alleges that he grabbed one of the children.

The mother did not freeze.

She stepped between Tucker and her children, grabbed the gas-pump hose and raised it as a weapon, using it to drive him away long enough for the child to get safely back inside. Two customers then dropped what they were carrying and rushed over to help.

“I saw a commotion outside like someone was running after a small kid,” gas station employee Ali Joof told Atlanta News First. “Some of our customers, they went outside and they were trying to calm the situation.”

Joof said Tucker was a regular customer who visited the store almost every day. Another local report said the station manager had previously ordered him off the property multiple times.

Tucker eventually returned to his vehicle and drove away. Marietta officers, assisted by Cobb County police, located and arrested him a short distance away. Police reported finding a THC vape in his vehicle.

Authorities have not announced a motive. “The million-dollar question everyone watching is going to ask: Why did this happen? Why did this occur?” McPhilamy said. “And we don’t know those answers.”

He credited the mother and bystanders with preventing the encounter from becoming even worse. “The actions of the mother and everyone on the scene, their ability to remain calm under pressure and push him away, get him away from the children, get a hold of us so that we can get to the area allowed us to hold this individual accountable,” McPhilamy said.

Tucker remained in the Cobb County Jail without bond on charges including attempted kidnapping, assault and possession of a controlled substance. The allegations against him have not yet been proven in court.

Surveillance video shows a man trying to kidnap a child at a gas station near Atlanta, with the mother using a gas pump to hold him off, authorities said. The video is now part of a police investigation. https://t.co/JBIDslr5jN pic.twitter.com/nXAUbEh0Rd

— ABC News (@ABC) July 31, 2026