A Georgia State Patrol pursuit along Interstate 20 near Atlanta ended in a 10-vehicle crash that killed the fleeing driver and a seven-month-old baby, and left two other infants riding in a separate vehicle that was struck. The Georgia Department of Public Safety said 33-year-old Cameron Gabriel Kemp of Covington died at Grady Memorial Hospital, while Kalayia Tolbert, the 7-month-old, died after being rushed to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
According to Atlanta News First, the chase began late Saturday night when a Georgia State Patrol trooper tried to stop Kemp's Audi sedan, which briefly pulled onto the shoulder before accelerating away and returning to I-20 eastbound. The department said Kemp then drove roughly 110 mph through a 60-mph zone, without headlights, weaving through traffic as the trooper pursued him.
The pursuit ended near the Candler Road and Wesley Chapel Road exits, where Kemp's Audi struck a guardrail and the driver lost control, the station's report said. The car then slammed into multiple vehicles, touching off a pileup that ultimately involved 10 vehicles in all. Two other infants were riding in one of the vehicles struck in the crash, though their conditions were not detailed in the department's account.
Kemp's Record Included Two Active Warrants
Per the department's account relayed by the same outlet, Kemp was driving on a suspended license and had two active arrest warrants out for him at the time of the chase — one for failing to appear in court and another tied to a probation violation. The report also noted that Kemp had previously served time in the Georgia Department of Corrections on an aggravated battery conviction.
Those details help explain, at least from the department's telling, why Kemp may have chosen to flee rather than stop for the trooper who first signaled him to pull over. The pursuit itself unfolded over just a short stretch of I-20 before ending in the deadly pileup near the DeKalb County exits.
A Pattern Georgia Officials Are Still Grappling With
This crash lands amid mounting scrutiny of how often Georgia State Patrol chases turn deadly. State troopers initiated 6,760 pursuits between 2019 and 2023, and 3,428 of them ended in crashes that injured 1,917 people and killed 63, according to CBS News Atlanta. The outlet also found that in 2023 alone, troopers were involved in pursuits on all but 14 days of the year, and that 87% of those pursuits that year started over nonfelony violations.
A separate review by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution put the same five-year span at more than 3,400 crashes, at least 1,900 injuries and 63 deaths, and noted that broader federal data recorded 201 pursuit fatalities tied to Georgia law enforcement agencies between 2018 and 2022. Since January 2025, at least 13 people have died in police chases across metro Atlanta and North Georgia, with at least seven more deaths elsewhere in the state, FOX 5 Atlanta reported, citing a JAMA Network study that found fatal police-chase deaths rising about 2% annually nationwide from 2009 through 2023 after adjusting for population growth and crash frequency.
Other Recent Chases Ended the Same Way
The Saturday night crash joins a string of other fatal Georgia State Patrol pursuits this year and last. FOX 5 Atlanta's tally includes a May 25, 2026 chase in Atlanta in which a fleeing driver lost control off I-20 and crashed into a gas station parking lot, killing 51-year-old Chatanna Ohiyesha Patterson, and a July 5, 2026 pursuit on I-75 that ended in a fatal rollover. In April 2025, a trooper's attempt to stop a speeding Chevrolet Equinox on I-20 East ended with the driver exiting at Moreland Avenue in Little Five Points and colliding with a vehicle carrying 19-year-old Cooper Schoenke, who died in the crash, according to Axios Atlanta.
Georgia lawmakers have floated legislation addressing pursuit policy; a bill introduced in the Georgia General Assembly, House Bill 1011, would require law enforcement agencies to adopt written policies governing vehicular pursuits in residential areas, though it remains unclear whether that measure has advanced or taken effect. Under longstanding state law, it is unlawful for a driver to willfully fail or refuse to stop, or to otherwise flee or attempt to elude a pursuing police vehicle or officer after receiving a visual or audible signal to stop.
