A suspect wanted by police

for attacking a woman at a Peachtree City hotel Sunday morning was arrested

hours later thanks to a sharp-eyed detective and a quick-acting police

chief.

Randall Gale Tate, 30, was

arrested by Police Chief James Murray after he was spotted walking on

Huddleston Drive by Cpl. Jennifer Michel while she was driving home. The

chief, who was not in uniform, stopped his unmarked vehicle near Tate

and asked the suspect for directions to a restaurant, said Maj. Mike DuPree

of the Peachtree City Police Department.

While Tate was distracted,

Murray forced him up against the vehicle and to the ground to safely make

the arrest, DuPree said.

Authorities were afraid Tate,

who has a long arrest record, would commit a carjacking or other serious

crime in an attempt to leave town and escape the police dragnet, DuPree

said.

"He has a pretty extensive

(criminal) background," DuPree said.

According to warrants for Tate's

arrest, police believe he intended to sexually assault the victim when

he burst into her hotel room. He was living at the Days Inn, where the

incident occurred, while he worked a construction job for a subcontractor

at the Home Depot construction site in Peachtree City, DuPree said.

Tate is charged with aggravated

assault and burglary. His bond has been set at $100,000.

While Murray was the hero of

the moment, it was the victim's mother who forced Tate to flee the hotel

room, jumping on his back and hitting him after he attacked her daughter,

DuPree said. The mother had been in the bathroom and heard her daughter

scream for help, DuPree said.

The arrest came after about

15 officers conducted a manhunt for the suspect, DuPree noted.

Two women told police that

Tate knocked on the door of their hotel room, but they didn't let him

in, DuPree added.

As the investigation began,

Peachtree City police worked with the High Point, N.C., Police Department

to obtain photographs of the suspect, who lived there before he took the

job at the Home Depot site, DuPree said.

Armed with that photo and information

that Tate had a tattoo on his face, police visited stores that were open,

asking them to call if that suspect showed up, DuPree said.

DuPree lauded the cooperation

the department received from High Point police officials.

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