A Nashville woman with a string of retail thefts was slapped with cuffs after she bolted from a traffic stop, placing her two young kids at peril in the process. On the lamb for high-end heists, Kelonzia Broyles, 23, found herself staring down the long arm of the law on Tuesday afternoon when Metro police spotted her car and stitched together a plan to bring the alleged serial shoplifter to justice.
The drama unfolded near the crossroads of Brick Church Pike and Trinity Lane, as cops clocked Broyles' vehicle. Recognizing that Broyles was in the wind on retail theft charges, officers tried to snag her with a traffic stop. But she wasn't having any of it – she stomped on the gas and turned the pursuit into a full-blown chase down Brick Church Pike, WKRN reported.
The MNPD switched gears and backed off the pursuit on the ground, opting to keep eyes on Broyles from the sky. A police chopper shadowed her as she weaved through traffic until she ground to a halt – caught in the snarl of traffic – "Ground units moved back in when Broyles became stuck in traffic, deployed spike strips, and took Broyles into custody without further incident", said the police.
However, the chase came with a worrying discovery. According to the police, during Broyles' arrest, officers found her two children – a 2-month-old daughter who was in a car seat but not properly secured, and a 2-year-old son riding shotgun without a car seat. This bit of negligent parenting added to Broyles' list of worries as she already had nine outstanding warrants for theft and domestic violence in Davidson County, WSMV confirmed.
The events leading up to her arrest began with an alleged $45,000 shoe theft from Green Hills Mall, which put Broyles on Metro Nashville Police's radar. Before her high-speed dash, she was already wanted, a detail sensationalized by a post from FoxNashville, outlining that her capture came only after a perilous evasion of police while her two very young children were unsecured. Broyles now faces an array of charges, while the fate of her children rests with authorities to safeguard their well-being amid their mother's legal maelstrom.
