When the driver and front seat passenger ducked while cruising by, that got the cop’s attention.
So Cobb County police officer Nathan Shinkle turned on the lights of his cruiser and pulled over the car for that suspicious behavior.
Shinkle got out of his car and Maurice Carson, with a warrant out for his arrest and allegedly drugs in car, told the driver Trevonn Blacknall: “Go.”
They sped off down Cochran Road, blew past the stop sign at South Cobb Drive and collided with a taxi at 11:11 p.m. on April 28.
The backseat passenger, 31-year-old Thomas K. Durham, of Antioch, Tennessee, was thrown from the car as it spun. Durham was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
Shinkle, whom the department said alerted dispatch about the car speeding off but did not chase after it, drove up on the crash scene soon after.
Carson and Blacknall, both of whom live in Marietta, were indicted July 27 on charges of first-degree vehicular homicide, fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, along with counts of possessing cocaine and marijuana, court records show.
At the time of the crash, police described the three men as acquaintances.
A woman who lives near the scene told Channel 2 Action News she saw Carson try to jump her fence while running from police.
Carson and another man were found 40 minutes later hiding near her shed, Berenice Salazar said.
According to Salazar, police said the men were doing drugs while hiding. Channel 2 also reported that drugs were found in the car. A department spokeswoman said at the time of the arrest that she could not confirm if the men were using drugs.
The pair have been in Cobb jail since the crash without bond, jail records show.
In other news ... Cobb PD: Duo stole guns from 160 vehicles, including from firefighters
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