Police confirmed the accused college student never attended East Coweta High School, despite allegedly wearing its cross-country uniform at the meet.
NEWNAN, Ga. — A team jersey found inside a 19-year-old college student’s car has emerged as one of the central pieces of evidence in an unusual battery case stemming from an alleged attack during a high school cross-country race in Newnan.
Newnan police say Aiden Dombrowski wore an East Coweta High School cross-country jersey when he emerged from woods along the course Sept. 26 and confronted a high school runner. But the department later checked with the Coweta County School System and announced that Dombrowski had never been a student at East Coweta. Instead, local reporting and a recruiting profile identify him as a former Northgate High School runner who now attends the University of Georgia. The mismatch between the uniform and Dombrowski’s actual background has become a defining feature of the investigation, even as police have yet to disclose why the runner was allegedly targeted.
The Police Department took the additional step of publicly clarifying Dombrowski’s lack of connection to East Coweta after the initial arrest announcement. That update matters because witnesses had described the person who entered the course specifically as someone wearing an East Coweta cross-country jersey. A team uniform can normally signal that its wearer belongs at a school event, yet investigators said that was not the case here. Police have not said where the jersey came from, who owned it before the incident or whether Dombrowski had permission to possess it. They also have not alleged wrongdoing by the East Coweta team or school in connection with his possession of the clothing.
Dombrowski’s documented running background points to Northgate High School, not East Coweta. An NCSA recruiting profile lists Northgate in Newnan as his high school, identifies cross-country as his primary position and lists him as a Class of 2026 athlete. FOX 5 Atlanta also reported that he previously competed for Northgate before attending the University of Georgia. Those facts place Dombrowski within the local high school running community without establishing a connection to the uniform police say he wore that morning. Witnesses who knew him from Northgate recognized him during the investigation, FOX 5 reported, potentially helping officers move quickly from an unidentified person on the course to a named suspect.
Investigators also focused on what happened before Dombrowski arrived at the race. FOX 5 reported that he drove from Athens to Newnan on Friday night and slept in his car before the Saturday morning meet. The available police releases do not specify exactly when he reached Newnan, what he did before the race or when he put on the East Coweta jersey. The travel itself does not establish a motive, but police have cited the trip and overnight stay while examining whether the encounter was planned in advance. Lt. Josh Jordan told the television station that the unusual sequence suggested investigators needed to determine a reason for Dombrowski’s conduct.
The actual police response began at 7:59 a.m. Sept. 26. Officers were sent to 56 Sewell Road after a 911 call reported an assault during a high school cross-country meet. Once at the scene, they interviewed the victim and several witnesses. According to the department, witnesses said a male came out of the woods holding rocks while wearing the East Coweta jersey. They said he ran toward the runner, pushed him and hit him with his fists. Police have not said he struck the runner with the rocks. The distinction between carrying the rocks and using his hands in the alleged assault is explicit in the department’s own account.
The runner fought back, police said, and the suspect then left the course and fled into the woods. FOX 5 reported that Dombrowski suffered a cut above his right eye and received medical attention after the encounter. The police release does not disclose the high school runner’s name or describe any significant injury suffered by that athlete. With the victim apparently remaining unidentified in public reporting, the focus has stayed on the conduct alleged against Dombrowski and the circumstances that brought a college student in another school’s jersey onto a high school racecourse early that morning.
A short time after fleeing, Dombrowski surrendered to Newnan officers in a nearby parking lot, according to police. He was no longer wearing the East Coweta uniform when he turned himself in. Officers said he had changed clothes, but the jersey was still inside his vehicle. That recovery gave investigators physical evidence consistent with the witnesses’ description of what the person on the course had been wearing. Police arrested Dombrowski and transported him to the Coweta County Jail, where he was charged with battery. The charge remains an allegation, and the public material reviewed for this story does not establish a final court disposition.
Body-camera footage subsequently added Dombrowski’s own account to the record. FOX 5 reported that he acknowledged knowing the runner but described the person only as an acquaintance and said the two had “no bad blood.” The station also reported that Dombrowski called the episode a prank and denied hitting the athlete. Those statements do not match the account police attributed to the victim and other witnesses, who said Dombrowski approached the runner, pushed him and struck him. Investigators have not publicly resolved the discrepancy between Dombrowski’s explanation and the other accounts gathered at the meet.
The differing versions have made motive a central unanswered issue rather than a settled part of the case. Police have not reported discovering a feud between Dombrowski and the runner. They have not announced evidence of a threat made before the race, nor have they described an argument at the meet that immediately preceded the alleged attack. Dombrowski’s statement that the two were acquaintances establishes that he said he knew the runner, but it does not show why the runner was approached. Authorities likewise have not explained whether investigators believe the jersey was chosen to avoid recognition, to blend in with competitors or for some other purpose.
The jersey also complicates the appearance of the event itself. Cross-country courses often extend beyond a single field and through wooded or less visible areas, and the reported confrontation occurred after witnesses said Dombrowski emerged from the trees. The official record does not say how long he had been there or precisely where along the course the encounter occurred. What it does establish is that the clothing seen by witnesses was recovered from his vehicle after he surrendered and that police separately verified he had no East Coweta enrollment history. Those two facts distinguish the uniform from incidental sports clothing and make its presence a documented part of the investigation.
A Coweta County Schools spokesperson described the incident as bizarre in remarks reported by FOX 5. That reaction reflects an event in which the accused was not an unknown outsider to the local running world but was, according to published accounts, a former runner from another county high school. Police have not blamed school officials, coaches or athletes for the incident, and the available reports do not identify a security failure or announce changes to future meets. The school system’s role in the investigation has primarily been to confirm that Dombrowski was not and had never been an East Coweta student.
One of the clearest unanswered questions now concerns the East Coweta jersey itself. Police confirmed Dombrowski never attended the school, yet officers said they found its cross-country jersey in his vehicle after he surrendered. Investigators have not publicly said where it came from or why he wore it, leaving that piece of clothing as both documented evidence and an unresolved part of the case.
Author note: Last updated Nov. 10, 2026.