LAWRENCEVILLE — A woman and her granddaughter are recovering after Gwinnett Police say a man broke in to their home and attacked them early Tuesday morning.
According to Gwinnett County Sheriff's Deputy Michele Pihera, emergency dispatchers received a call around 2:30 a.m. from a woman who was unable to carry a conversation because she was being attacked. The dispatcher used triangulation to pinpoint the caller's location and sent officers to a home on Saratoga Drive in Lawrenceville.
Officers discovered a nude, black man, identified later as 32-year-old Andre Burton, standing in a bathroom and beating two victims. Officers interrupted the attack, and found a 73-year-old woman unresponsive, and a 14-year-old standing over her.
Pihera said Burton did not comply with verbal commands from the responding officer, and he was tased, handcuffed and removed from the home.
Officers interviewed the woman, who was now conscious, and her granddaughter while waiting on an ambulance. The woman told police she heard a loud noise downstairs and went to investigate, when she discovered the man, unclothed, in her granddaughter's room. The woman said he attacked both of them, beating, punching and kicking them multiple times.
The woman also told police that Burton threw a printer and a dresser, demanding money. She said he pushed her to the ground at the bottom of the staircase, and then forced them into the bathroom and told them to "wash the blood off" and continued to attack them when police interrupted the assault.
Pihera said the victims told police they do not know Burton, and have never seen him before.
Both victims were transported to a hospital by ambulance. Burton was also taken to the hospital.
The vehicle Burton allegedly drove to the scene of the crime was located nearby and investigators determined it was stolen shortly before the attack from an acquaintance on Lawrenceville Highway.
Burton has been charged with theft by taking, battery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, burglary , robbery, interference with a 911 call, false imprisonment, public indecency, cruelty to children, cruelty to children in the third degree, failure to have a license on person and parking on a public roadway.
Burton was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail at 8:40 a.m. Tuesday.
