When a state trooper tried to stop a car Wednesday morning in Cobb County, the five teenagers inside decided to flee, officials said.
“The trooper was attempting to stop the Dodge (Charger) because it had been reported stolen,” Georgia State Patrol spokeswoman Tracey Watson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The 17-year-old driver sped from Cumberland Boulevard onto I-75, where the Charger eventually struck several cars on the interstate, Watson said.
The chase led to nine separate wrecks and reached 100 mph at one point, according to an arrest warrant for the driver, identified as Bruce Graddy.
Graddy, authorities said, drove the stolen Charger through a grass median. He also went the wrong way along a ramp from northbound Cobb Parkway to southbound Ga. 280 before hitting a 2003 Infiniti G35 and a heavy duty construction forklift, according to the warrant.
The ordeal ended when the Charger struck the construction equipment, injuring forklift operator Richard Cheese, police said. Michelle Fluellen, the driver of the Infiniti, was injured, too. Their injuries were not serious.
Officials arrested one of the teenagers at the scene of the crash. The other four ran up an embankment to gain access to the apartment homes at Westminster Square on Windy Hill Road.
After about an hour-long manhunt with police dogs, the teenagers were captured.
Resident Yachisa Fuller moved to Cobb in February from Riverdale and said she was thankful to live in a quiet area.
She said the heavy police presence surprised her.
“My heart started racing,” she said.
But when she learned the alleged criminals had been caught, her curiosity abated.
“It’s reassuring to know that the police were here and that they did catch who they were looking for,” Fuller said. “I can sleep at night.”
All five teenagers arrested are between the ages of 17 and 19 and, with the exception of 17-year-old Ian Fairchild of Riverdale, they are all from Atlanta.
Graddy, Unterio Ponds, 18, Charles McDaniel, 19, and Keith Shelby, 18, all face charges of theft by receiving stolen property and willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer, according to Cobb jail records.
Additionally, Graddy faces 10 counts of reckless driving, nine counts of hit-and-run, one count of fleeing or attempting to elude police and six other misdemeanors.
They include two counts of driving on the wrong side of the road, one count of violation of a traffic control device, one count of speeding, one count of driving without a license and one count of not wearing a seatbelt, records show.
At least one of the teenagers had a gun, Channel 2 reported, and police questioned them at the precinct before sending them to jail.
McDaniel is the same teenager who was arrested last year in connection with the shooting of a pregnant woman at the Oakland City MARTA station in southwest Atlanta.
All five suspects were at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center Thursday morning. Shelby was there in lieu of $38,720 bond. Bond information was not available for the others Thursday morning.
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