Wealthy Milton businessman arrested after threatening to kill wife, kids.

By Christian Boone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A north Fulton man who threatened to kill his wife and three children was arrested just before sunrise Sunday morning at his home in an affluent Milton subdivision, authorities say.

Police were called by the suspect's wife, who alleges he hit and threatened to kill her and the couple's three children, ages 12, 6 and 1. Officers arrived to find the woman and the oldest child hiding in the yard of their Seabiscuit Lane home, said Milton Police spokesman Shawn McCarty.

From inside the residence, where his two youngest children remained, Doug Baker, 47, threatened to shoot the responding officers. The Milton-Alpharetta SWAT unit was called in, and a four-hour standoff ensued, McCarty told the AJC.

The SWAT team finally forced their way into the house around 6:30 a.m. The two children were in their rooms, apparently oblivious to what had transpired, McCarty said. Officers found Baker, who was recently laid off from his job, passed out drunk in the basement, the police spokesman told the AJC. Investigators recovered a gun they say Baker tried to hide before his arrest.

The couple had been fighting, Baker's wife told police, and she blamed the argument on her husband's drinking. According to public records, the Bakers had recently filed for bankruptcy.

The suspect remains in Fulton County Jail, charged with making terroristic threats, false imprisonment, felony obstruction of justice and unspecified domestic violence offenses, McCarty said. No bond has been set.