A chaotic series of events unfolded Thursday night when 24-year-old Christian Franklin drove through a roadblock set up for a tanker truck fire, striking a Tennessee State Trooper and leading law enforcement on a chase, as reported by Action News 5. The Memphis Police Department (MPD) had been tending to a massive blaze near I-55 and West Mallory, ignited after a tanker carrying roughly 8,000 gallons of gasoline crashed and exploded when Franklin maneuvered his car through the restricted area and nearly hit the officer head-on.
According to WREG, multiple law enforcement units engaged in pursuit as Franklin continued down I-55 refusing to halt, the chase captured on dashcam footage by WREG crews in the vicinity. His car was eventually brought to a stop at South Parkway East and Humber Street where, reports state, officers had to physically extract Franklin from his vehicle. Police found a hefty bag of marijuana on the front seat and a smaller one along with a scale hidden in a red cup in the center console.
Franklin now faces multiple charges, including failure to obey a traffic officer, reckless endangerment, aggravated assault, evading arrest, possession of a controlled substance, evading arrest in a vehicle, resisting arrest, and possession of drug paraphernalia, as detailed by a statement from the MPD provided to FOX13 Memphis.
