A driver was arrested in Clayton County early Saturday after police said he smashed into a patrol car while trying to flee a police officer on I-85.
Tony Tatum faces several charges, including hit-and-run and driving while intoxicated, Clayton County police told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Tatum was sitting in a car that was stopped in the middle of the interstate near Riverdale Road just after midnight, Clayton police said in a statement. An officer spotted the stopped car and approached the vehicle to glean what had happened to it, police said.
The officer spoke to Tatum and then began walking back to his patrol car. Then, he heard a “loud boom sound, consistent with someone having an accident,” and realized that Tatum had crashed his vehicle into the patrol car.
The officer yelled for the vehicle to stop, but it sped away. The officer managed to provide Tatum’s license plate number to other police officers in the area, and authorities later found the man along Church Street.
Tatum was booked into the Clayton County Jail. In addition to hit-and-run and DUI, he is charged with improper lane change, stop sign violation and attempting to flee/elude police.
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