A Franklin County Sheriff's Office pursuit that lasted roughly one minute ended with a fatal crash at the intersection of Aberdeen Avenue and McGuffey Road on November 1, killing the driver of a Buick Verano after a Dodge Dakota blew through a stop sign and slammed into it. The man driving the Dodge ran from the wreck on foot before deputies caught up with him in a nearby backyard.
Dashcam footage released by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, as reported by 10TV, shows deputies first trying to stop the Dodge after it ran a red light at Westerville and East Weber roads. A deputy activated a cruiser's emergency lights in an attempt to pull the truck over, but the Dodge instead pulled into a gas station, then accelerated back out of the lot once a deputy followed.
From there, the chase moved into residential streets, with the Dodge reportedly speeding through two intersections with stop signs without stopping. A deputy riding in the cruiser's passenger seat radioed updates to public safety dispatchers throughout, at one point reporting, “We got one running from us. Started from traffic. We're going down a wrong-way right now.” The same deputy reported speeds climbing from 24 mph to 70 mph as the pursuit continued.
Dodge Ran a Third Stop Sign Right Before Impact
According to the Columbus Division of Police, the Dodge Dakota ran a stop sign at McGuffey Road — the third one it blew through during the brief chase — and struck a Buick Verano. The collision pushed both vehicles into the yard of a home on the northwest corner of the intersection. The Buick's driver was transported to a hospital in critical condition and later died from crash injuries; officials have not released that driver's identity.
The sheriff's cruiser itself was not involved in the crash, and Chief Deputy Jim Gilbert told 10TV that deputies stopped immediately afterward to check on everyone involved. Gilbert said the crash happened while a supervisor was still assessing whether the pursuit should continue, and that the pursuing deputies had followed department policy by reporting their locations, road conditions, the nature of the original stop, and their current speeds throughout.
Driver Fled on Foot, Then Was Tasered in a Backyard
The Dodge driver was identified as 31-year-old Dylan Grubbs, who got out of his vehicle after the crash and ran from the scene. Grubbs was reportedly tasered and taken into custody after a foot chase that ended in a nearby backyard. Gilbert said Grubbs had previous arrest warrants and was driving under multiple suspensions at the time of the crash, and that he allegedly admitted he fled because of those warrants.
Columbus police are now investigating the crash itself. Anyone who witnessed it is asked to contact the Columbus Division of Police Accident Investigation Unit at 614-645-4767 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-4777.
A Department That Has Tightened Pursuit Oversight Before
This is not the first time a Franklin County Sheriff's Office pursuit has drawn scrutiny. Back in 2019, the department required that all sheriff's pursuits, regardless of an officer's rank, report in to a remote supervising deputy, according to WOSU News. Gilbert said at the time that deputies would have to update a supervisor as circumstances changed, such as moving onto another road or into a subdivision, and the office reported a 40% drop in pursuits over the prior six months as supervisors shut some chases down before they escalated.
A separate West Columbus pursuit was also reviewed by the Sheriff's Office after it appeared the chase may have violated department policy, according to ABC6/FOX28. That pursuit reportedly lasted about five minutes and reached speeds of 94 miles per hour before ending in a crash that left four people with injuries described as minor.
Nationally, pursuit-related crashes carry significant risk: the Bureau of Justice Statistics has reported that general-purpose law enforcement agencies conducted an estimated 68,000 vehicle pursuits in 2012, and that an average of 355 people were killed annually in pursuit-related crashes between 1996 and 2015. Ohio's Department of Public Safety crash-retrieval system also cautions that the crash data it publishes is submitted for statistical purposes only and is not the official crash report, directing anyone seeking full documentation to contact the investigating agency directly.
