Near the end of the roughly 10-mile chase that shut down I-75 southbound for more than six hours Wednesday Georgia State Patrol Trooper Jacob Fields got his first look at the suspect driving the blue Chevy truck.
“Southbound on Canton Road, I’m right beside him. He’s a Hispanic male,” Fields said on police radio dispatches released to the media Thursday.
Israel Vladamir Rodriguez, like Fields, was 26 years old. It would not be the last time their paths would cross.
Both men were taken to the emergency room at Kennestone Hospital. Rodriguez was in grave condition, having been struck by as many as eight bullets by troopers. Following multiple surgeries, he died around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the incident.
Fields was released from intensive care Thursday morning, said Georgia State Patrol Captain Mark Perry, and is expected to make a full recovery. He was shot in the leg and abdomen by Rodriguez, who, according to Perry, emerged from his truck shooting after hitting the back of an SUV near Delk Road. The woman driving that car was treated for minor injuries at the scene, GBI spokesman Scott Dutton told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Minutes earlier, Fields, a trooper for three years, appealed for help to “box (Rodriguez) in.”
“Get behind me. I’m in front of him,” Fields can be heard on the radio. “We got him boxed in.”
Moments later, measured exchanges between troopers trying to apprehend a suspect turn into frantic calls for help.
“Shots fired! Shots fired!” yells another trooper. Then, following a long pause:
“Trooper down!”
Investigators spent much of the night combing the asphalt looking for clues as traffic was diverted to side streets. So far, little is known what made Rodriguez so determined to evade police. His criminal record is scant; public documents reveal only a 2008 arrest for reckless driving and following too closely.
“Rodriquez’s decision to flee from troopers is one of those things being looked into as part of the ongoing investigation,” Dutton told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There is a lot of evidence that must be examined and interviews to be completed before the case will be finished.”
Rodriguez’s father told Channel 2 Action News, in broken English, that his son was “a good boy. Hardworking.”
Friend Andres Guillen said he met Rodriguez when both were students at Cobb’s Osborne High School.
“He was real shy but never an angry type of guy,” said Guillen, who now lives in Houston. “Never ran with gangs or anything.”
Rodriguez had just moved back home with his father and Guillen said mutual friends told him he had developed a drinking problem.
“He was a really good dude,” Guillen said. “I still can’t figure out why he’d do something like this.”
Meanwhile, the incident will likely renew questions about the wisdom of high speed police chases. Different agencies have varying policies on such pursuits; according to Perry, the state patrol leaves it to the trooper’s discretion.
“(Rodriguez) is the one who chose to flee,” Perry said. “The trooper made the decision and this is something he will have to speak to at some point on why he chose to pursue at that point.”
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