A 24-year-old Gwinnett County man faces multiple charges including felony fleeing and eluding after he allegedly fled from police, striking another vehicle, with three young children in the backseat of his car, Channel 2 Action News reports.
Richard Sasso also has been charged with misdemeanor hit-and-run, reckless driving and child safety seat violations, police said.
The incident started shortly before 3 p.m. Friday in the 3300 block of Club Drive in unincorporated Duluth. An officer on patrol ran the tag number of the 1996 Honda Accord ahead of him, and the tag came back expired.
The officer pulled over the car in the parking lot of a townhouse complex and saw the driver, Sasso, had three children in the back – two boys, ages 3 and 4, and a 4-year-old girl -- without seat belts or car seats.
The officer took Sasso’s driver’s license, but as he was running the information, the suspect allegedly gunned the engine.
“He was turning it over, and I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s getting ready to run,” witness Latrice Hall told Channel 2.
Another witness, Roneishia Hall, said, “He hit over the curb, the dust and stuff was flying up.”
Sasso struck an unattended vehicle as he sped out of the parking lot, police said. The officer did not pursue.
“It was not a chase,” Gwinnett police spokesman Cpl. Jake Smith said in a phone interview with the AJC. “We don’t pursue for traffic charges here.”
But police had Sasso’s license – which turned out to be suspended – and knew where to find him. Less than a half-hour later, they arrested him as he walked outside where he lived, in the Country Court Apartments in unincorporated Lawrenceville.
Officers found the children uninjured with Sasso's girlfriend in his apartment. The two boys are his, while the girl was the daughter of a family friend, police said.
The man was charged and booked into Gwinnett County Detention Center. He has since been released on bond to await trial.
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