Two Cobb County police officers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries on Wednesday after a U-Haul truck linked to an armed robbery in Memphis, Tennessee, led officers on a chase that ended in a rollover crash and foot pursuit near the Sandy Springs border. Five suspects were taken into custody by the time the pursuit wound down near the Chattahoochee River, and both injured officers are expected to be okay.
According to WSB-TV, Cobb County police had received information that the U-Haul was connected to the Memphis armed robbery when officers spotted it traveling on Interstate 285. Officers attempted to stop the U-Haul along with two other cars traveling with it. The two smaller cars pulled over, but the U-Haul sped off, kicking off the chase.
Chase Traced to an 11:35 a.m. Alert
The alert connecting the truck to the Memphis robbery reached Cobb County officers at approximately 11:35 a.m. Wednesday, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. Officers first tried to pull the U-Haul over near the intersection of Mount Vernon Highway and Northside Drive before the driver fled toward Sandy Springs, the outlet reported. That prompted Sandy Springs police and the Georgia Department of Public Safety to join the chase and the foot pursuit that followed, which ended with all five suspects in handcuffs.
Truck Rolled Into Patrol Cars, Trapping an Officer
The truck's driver failed to put it in park, and the U-Haul rolled down an incline before striking a patrol car and pushing it into a second patrol vehicle, WSB-TV reported. One officer was briefly trapped between the two patrol cars in the collision. The driver then climbed out of the truck and tried to run before being caught along with the truck's other occupants.
Where the Pursuit Ended
The chase concluded in the 4900 block of Riverview Road SE, a corridor that runs along the Chattahoochee River on the boundary between Cobb County and Sandy Springs, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. Memphis police are continuing to investigate the detained suspects in connection with the robbery there, though authorities have not released any of their identities.
Georgia's Felony Fleeing Law Looms Over the Driver
The driver faces additional charges beyond whatever stems from the Memphis case, WSB-TV reported, and Georgia law offers a preview of what that could look like. Under Georgia Code § 40-6-395, fleeing or attempting to elude police escalates from a misdemeanor to a felony when a driver flees to escape arrest for an underlying felony, collides with another vehicle, or exceeds the speed limit by more than 30 mph, according to Justia Law. Given the collision and the underlying Memphis robbery, the driver appears to meet more than one of those triggers.
A felony fleeing conviction in Georgia carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, and state law bars judges from probating, deferring, or withholding that portion of the sentence, per EHG Law Firm. It remains an open question whether federal prosecutors will add interstate robbery or firearms charges tied to the Memphis case. The U.S. Department of Justice notes that cases crossing state lines from Tennessee into Georgia typically involve the FBI and ATF Safe Streets Task Forces to coordinate multi-jurisdictional warrants.
A Pattern of Pursuits Involving Rental Trucks
Cobb County's pursuit policy, known as Policy 5.03, requires supervisors to formally review and log every chase, a standard shaped by internal department data showing more than half of past pursuits ended in crashes, according to GovInfo. Scrutiny of the department's pursuit decisions has intensified since June, when Cobb County was sued in Cobb County State Court over allegations that officers violated department policy during a high-speed chase that ended in a fatal crash, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Rental trucks have turned up in a string of recent Cobb County cases. In May, a stolen U-Haul chase sent police from Cobb County into Paulding County before deputies flipped the truck. In April, suspects used a rented U-Haul as a battering ram to smash into a Family Dollar and steal an ATM, WSB-TV reported at the time.
