Chase of alleged shrimp thieves ends in crash, gunfire
What Atlanta police say started as a simple seafood heist early Wednesday morning turned into a high-speed truck chase that ended in gunfire, an arrest in Clayton County and a path littered with frozen shrimp.
The episode began when officers were called to a food warehouse on Empire Boulevard in southwest Atlanta, where they saw three suspects loading boxes into a Budget Rental truck, Atlanta police spokesman officer Ralph Woolfolk said.
After realizing they had been spotted, the suspects got into the truck, two in the cab and one on the rear, and sped away with police in pursuit, the authorities said.
Along the way, the suspect on the outside allegedly tossed boxes of frozen shrimp onto the road before finally jumping off himself near Thomasville and Moreland Avenue.
Police continued after the truck all the way to Ellenwood, where the truck flipped over onto a railroad track near Double Bridge Road and Front Street. One of the remaining two suspects got out of the cab and ran down the tracks. The other was trapped inside the cab and, when officers approached, began firing a weapon, Woolfolk said.
Police returned fire and Mario Keen, 38, surrendered and was transported to Fulton County Jail.
The other two suspects were being sought.
Police later determined that the suspects allegedly stole the frozen shrimp out of an 18-wheeler trailer that was parked with the driver asleep inside. A person who made the 911 call that brought police to the scene had assumed it was a carjacking, Woolfolk said.
