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DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — Another person has been charged after a woman and 11 children were held in an Atlanta area motel room by a man who stabbed himself after a five-hour standoff with authorities, police said Wednesday.
Diamond Williams, 21, placed a 911 call claiming to be another woman and alleging a domestic assault, DeKalb County police Maj. Stephen Fore said. He said in an email that Williams has been charged with false report of a crime.
Detectives said Williams made the call after an argument with Korrie Thomas, 36, who was found critically injured after police say he stabbed himself with a knife Tuesday. Williams was not the woman held with the children Thomas did not allow to leave, Fore said.
He said the children in the motel ranged from 3 months to 17 years old and that no one else was injured.
Authorities said Thomas faces charges of false imprisonment and obstruction.
It wasn't known if Williams or Thomas had an attorney.
Police said officers initially responded about 2 a.m. Tuesday to the Rite4us Inn & Suites motel in Decatur, a community about 10 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta.
Authorities had surrounded the motel and tried to negotiate with Thomas before a SWAT team eventually stormed the room and found him critically injured, police said.
DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James said Tuesday that Thomas should have reported to prison in November to begin a 15-year sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to armed robbery and aggravated assault. A judge had sentenced Thomas to nine years behind bars followed by probation.
County and state officials were searching for safe housing and other assistance for the woman and the children, after determining they weren't injured or neglected, according to DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center director Trenny Stovall. She said authorities believe the woman and Thomas are parents of 10 of the children, while the oldest child is Thomas' brother.
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