What began as a simple Sunday morning burglary call turned into a two-county car chase and ended with two suspects shot, two more on the lam and an injured Rockdale sheriff’s deputy, authorities said.
The deputy, who was allegedly hit by the suspects’ car, suffered non-life threatening injuries. The wounded suspects were also expected to survive.
According to information released by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation:
• At about 9 a.m. Sunday, Rockdale County authorities were responding to a burglary call on Conyers’ Cambridge Creek Drive when deputy spotted a car matching the description of the suspects’ vehicle. The deputy attempted a traffic stop but the car drove off. Deputies pursued.
• The suspects made it about four miles to the Lockniver subdivision — not far from Heritage High School — before slowing down. Two suspects jumped out and ran away. As of Sunday evening, they had not been apprehended.
• The chase continued about two more miles into a subdivision on Amberbrook Drive, where deputies “boxed in the vehicle forcing it to stop.”
“The vehicle continued moving around,” the GBI’s statement said, “striking one of the deputies and knocking him to the ground. “As a result, the other deputies on scene fired into the car.”
The suspects kept going. The injured deputy was treated on the scene and released.
• Deputies continued to pursue, following the car another 10 miles into DeKalb County. It all ended on Chupp Way — a residential street just south of I-20 near Lithonia — when deputies performed a PIT maneuver, a tactic that essentially involves bumping a vehicle in an attempt to immobilize it.
“The two occupants were apprehended and appeared to have been shot as a result of the earlier encounter,” the GBI’s statement said. They were taken to area hospitals and treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Their identities were not released Sunday.
The GBI is investigating the incident, which is standard procedure for officer-involved shootings. The Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office was “actively searching” for the two suspects who escaped.
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