A Gwinnett County man is facing kidnapping and aggravated assault charges after police say he threatened to kill a young child during a domestic dispute, then led officers on a pursuit before fighting his way out of a police roadblock. The child was recovered unharmed and returned to her mother, according to the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Police say Saul Gutierrez allegedly threatened to kill himself and the child during the dispute, which occurred in Gwinnett County on January 31, before taking the child and refusing to pull over for officers. As reported by FOX 5 Atlanta, responding officers shared vehicle details over the radio, and North Precinct officers used Flock Safety license plate reader cameras to track down the vehicle.
Once officers located Gutierrez's car, they did not immediately force a stop. Instead, according to the Gwinnett County Police Department, officers set up a rolling roadblock — a tactic in which patrol cars position around a fleeing vehicle to box it in and force it to slow down without a direct impact. Gutierrez fought his way out of that formation, according to police, prompting officers to escalate their response.
Officers Escalate to a PIT Maneuver
With the rolling roadblock broken, officers executed a Precision Immobilization Technique, or PIT, maneuver to force the vehicle to spin out and stop. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirms that Gwinnett County officers regularly use PIT maneuvers as an authorized tactic to end pursuits when a driver poses an immediate danger to the public. Officers then took Gutierrez into custody, secured the child, and returned her to her mother — the child was unharmed, per the same report from FOX 5 Atlanta.
Police have not released the specific street location where the domestic dispute began or where the pursuit ended, and authorities have not detailed a bond amount or Gutierrez's initial court date.
A Lengthy List of Charges
The Gwinnett County Police Department says Gutierrez faces a lengthy roster of charges: Aggravated Assault, Kidnapping, Aggravated Assault Against a Law Enforcement Officer When Engaged on Official Duty, Interference with Government Property, Cruelty to Children in the Second Degree, Cruelty to Children in the Third Degree, Simple Battery Family Violence, Fleeing or Attempting to Elude a Police Officer, Transporting a Child in a Passenger Vehicle Without a Restraining System, and Driving Without a Valid License.
The kidnapping charge falls under O.C.G.A. § 16-5-40, which FindLaw notes defines kidnapping in Georgia as unlawfully abducting or stealing away a person without lawful authority and holding them against their will — a felony carrying heavy penalties. The aggravated assault against a police officer charge is especially serious: under O.C.G.A. § 16-5-21, that offense carries a mandatory minimum of 5 years and up to 20 years in state prison, according to Conoscienti & Ledbetter. Separately, a Georgia State University legal summary of O.C.G.A. § 16-10-24 explains that Georgia imposes felony obstruction penalties when someone knowingly and willfully resists an officer performing lawful duties by offering or doing violence.
Flock Cameras' Growing Role in Gwinnett Cases
The use of Flock cameras to locate Gutierrez's vehicle fits a pattern in Gwinnett County, where the technology has become central to how police respond to fast-moving threats. Gwinnett's Situational Awareness and Crime Response Center, which integrates the camera network across precincts, assisted in 250 arrests, located nearly 80 stolen vehicles, and tracked down 12 missing persons in 2024 alone, according to a county news release previously reported by Hoodline. A 2022 report by Gwinnett County community improvement districts, relayed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, found that Flock cameras in the department's Central Precinct alone recovered 104 stolen vehicles valued at nearly $1.5 million and led to 199 arrests in 2021.
Gwinnett police have used the same combination of Flock tracking and PIT maneuvers in other recent chases, including a March 2024 carjacking pursuit and a July 2025 armed robbery case involving a Lawrenceville teen. Notably, the license plate data that helped locate vehicles like Gutierrez's does not stick around indefinitely — Flock's cloud camera systems automatically purge unflagged scans after 30 days, even though Georgia law permits retention of that data for up to 30 months, per department data guidelines.
A Case Amid Statewide Domestic Violence Numbers
The case adds to a troubling statewide picture of children caught up in domestic violence. An estimated 17,682 children were identified as victims of family violence in Georgia in 2023, alongside 129,528 adult victims statewide, according to the Georgia Commission on Family Violence's 2024 Fact Sheet relayed by the Tri-County Protective Agency. The exact relationship between Gutierrez, the child, and the mother has not been detailed by authorities.
