A Cobb County man who led authorities on a chase through Marietta in a stolen SUV on Tuesday afternoon faces a number of charges, according to police.
The chase began shortly before 1 p.m. when police said the suspect rammed into an officer’s patrol car outside a tire shop. It came to an end after Marietta police and Cobb County deputies converged and used a tactic known as a PIT maneuver to stop the stolen vehicle.
“I am proud of all the Marietta and Cobb officers that acted as one team to hold this suspect accountable for his actions,” Marty Ferrell, Marietta’s interim police chief, said in a news release.
Officers identified the suspect as Kenneth Edward Fletcher, a 35-year-old Marietta man.
He was arrested on charges of aggravated assault on an officer, fleeing and attempting to elude, hit-and-run, reckless driving, obstruction, theft by receiving greater than $1,500, criminal interference with government property and acquiring a plate to conceal identification of a vehicle.
According to a police spokesperson, officers responded to a collision center in the 500 block of Roswell Street shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday. Owners at the repair yard reported that a Honda Element was stolen from the property overnight.
Around 1 p.m., an anonymous caller reported that a stolen vehicle matching the SUV’s description was stranded near Canton Road with a flat tire, the news release said. Police found the SUV parked outside a tire shop just off the intersection of Sandy Plains and Canton roads.
Three Marietta officers tried to box Fletcher in, but he put the vehicle in reverse and slammed it into one of the marked patrol cars before speeding out of a parking lot, according to police spokesperson Officer Chuck McPhilamy.
Fletcher led Marietta police and Cobb County deputies on a two-mile chase southwest on Canton Road that ended at Cobb Parkway, police said.
Officers there performed the PIT maneuver to disable the vehicle. Police said Fletcher jumped out of a passenger’s-side window as the SUV was still moving and tried to run. Police and Cobb deputies chased and quickly captured him, according to McPhilamy.
Fletcher was treated at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital before police booked him into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
Last month, another wild ride that began in Cobb spilled into north Atlanta.
A driver led police on a seven-mile chase on I-75 with a 2-month-old in the backseat on Feb. 3, according to police. The pursuit reached speeds above 90 mph with the driver weaving in and out of traffic, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Marquez Wright, 27, was arrested in connection with that chase and booked on a count of aggravated assault of an officer, among other charges.
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