A high school cross-country runner was in the middle of a race in Newnan, Georgia, when a man wearing another school’s jersey emerged from the woods and came after him, according to Newnan Police.
The department said officers were called to the area of 56 Sewell Road at 7:59 a.m. Sept. 26 after someone reported an assault at a high school cross-country meet. The victim and several witnesses described a man coming from the woods holding rocks, running toward the athlete, pushing him and striking him with his fists.
The runner fought back. The man then fled the racecourse into the woods, police said. But the encounter did not end with officers searching indefinitely for someone who had disappeared among the trees.
A short time later, 19-year-old Aiden Dombrowski turned himself in to officers in a nearby parking lot. Police arrested him on a battery charge and took him to the Coweta County Jail. The charge is an accusation, and Dombrowski has not been convicted in connection with the incident.
Out Of The Woods
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There was another detail waiting in the parking lot.
Dombrowski had changed clothes by the time he surrendered, according to police. Officers said they found the East Coweta High School cross-country jersey that witnesses had described inside his vehicle.
That jersey created an obvious question about whether Dombrowski had some connection to the school.
A day after announcing the arrest, the Newnan Police Department issued an update saying it had checked with the Coweta County School System. Dombrowski was not a current or former East Coweta High School student.
FOX 5 Atlanta subsequently reported another school connection. Dombrowski graduated from Northgate High School the previous year and had run cross-country there, according to the station. FOX 5 also reported that he now attends the University of Georgia.
A Long Detour
The sequence Dombrowski described to officers on body-camera footage made the morning even harder to explain.
FOX 5 reported that Dombrowski told officers he had driven from Athens on Friday night and slept in his car before the Saturday morning race.
By race time, he was wearing the East Coweta jersey.
The police release does not say Dombrowski threw or struck anyone with the rocks witnesses reported seeing in his hands. It says he pushed the runner and hit him with his fists.
The runner defended himself during the confrontation. FOX 5’s bodycam report shows Dombrowski with a cut above his right eye after the altercation, and the station reported that officers called an ambulance to treat him at the scene.
The Prank Explanation
Body-camera footage also captured officers trying to figure out what had led to the confrontation.
Dombrowski told them the episode was supposed to be a prank, according to FOX 5, while denying that he had struck the runner.
Witnesses and the victim gave police a different account. Newnan Police said they reported that Dombrowski pushed the runner and struck him with his fists before the runner defended himself.
The bodycam exchange also complicated any suggestion that the runner had simply been a complete stranger. When an officer asked whether he knew the student, Dombrowski said he knew him but described the two as acquaintances and said there was no bad blood between them.
Police have not publicly identified a motive for why that particular runner was approached.
One Charge
For now, the publicly announced case is considerably simpler than the circumstances surrounding it.
Newnan Police identified Dombrowski as a Newnan resident and said he was booked into the Coweta County Jail on one battery charge. The department’s release did not announce additional charges related to the rocks, jersey or circumstances leading up to the confrontation.
Police are continuing to seek information about the incident. Anyone with information was asked to contact Sgt. Bradley Wilcox of the Newnan Police Department at 770-254-2355 or bwilcox@newnanga.gov.