COWETA COUNTY, Ga. - The Coweta County Sheriff's Office released a video Thursday showing deputies rushing into a Newnan hotel lobby with guns drawn and ordering a man to the ground.
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According to Sheriff Mike Yeager, Ryan Salehzadeh, 25, of Fayetteville, was at the hotel to have sex with a girl he knew to be just 12 years old. Investigators said Salehzadeh had a bag that contained, among other things, condoms and package of gummy bears. He is charged with aggravated child molestation, criminal attempt to commit statutory rape and enticing a child for indecent purposes.
Investigators said the girl lived in Pembroke Pines, Florida. They said her parents caught her sexting with Salehzadeh and had sent him a photograph of herself wearing just underwear. Authorities there allegedly found messages in which he expressed his desire to travel to Florida to have sex with her. After taking over her account and posing as the child, they informed him that she would be staying with her family at the Newnan hotel while visiting her grandmother.
Police said Salehzadeh then expressed a desire to have sex with her at the hotel and his residence in Fayettevile. Police say, during their texting with the suspect they let it be known several times that she was just 12 years old. They said Salehzadeh wrote back that he did not care about her age.
Salehzadeh is being held in the Coweta County Jail without bond.