A car theft suspect fleeing police became a one-man wrecking crew early Tuesday, hitting and totaling a half-dozen cars before going airborne and crashing into a home in northwest Atlanta.
Channel 2 Action News reported that when officers tried to stop a motorist driving with no lights around 2 a.m., the driver sped off.
Officers initiated a chase, but had called it off due to high speeds before the suspect slammed into at least six cars parked on Holmes Street, according to Channel 2.
The suspect fled on foot after crashing the car into a house, but was caught a couple of blocks away and taken to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
Atlanta police Sgt. Greg Lyon said Sedrick Scott, 21, was charged with theft-by-receiving stolen property (auto), fleeing and attempting to elude, obstructing officers, criminal damage to property and interference with government property.
According to Fulton County Jail officials and online records, Scott has been in the Fulton jail at least five times before Tuesday, on charges ranging from giving false information and burglary to obstructing a police officer.
“We were woken up by a bang,” said Trisha Westbrook, who has rented the house for two years. “It sounded like a bomb.”
Westbrook said she came out of her bedroom to find her kitchen “a mess. It was crazy. Everything was all over the floor.”
“We walked outside and saw bricks and hosue shingles and stuff everywhere, but mostly two cars in our driveway sandwiched together,” Westbrook told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We looked further out and saw that both of our cars has been hit and were totaled.”
“We were asleep and suddenly heard a series of loud crashes and what sounded like a small explosion,” said Paul McKibben, who lives across the street from the house that was hit by the out-of-control vehicle.
“We just came barreling out of the house to see what went wrong and saw the accident,” McKibben said.
McKibben said the suspect’s car “was smoking in the front yard. We couldn’t even tell it was a car.”
Surveying the trail of damage in the light of day Tuesday morning, McKibben said, “it’s even worse than it looked last night.”
Another neighbor was sitting on his porch and witnessed the whole thing.
“I came outside to get some air because I couldn’t sleep,” said Corey McCauley.
“I was sitting on my porch with my dog, and all of a sudden, you hear this loud noise coming down the street.”
The suspect began hitting cars “like something out of a stunt movie,” McCauley said. “He used those cars as launching pad, and flipped over,” McCauley said. “My dog usually barks at everything, and he was in shock.”
After hitting the house, the suspect “jumped out of the car instantly,” McCauley said. “He pulled his shorts up and he just took off running down the street, full speed, like nothing had happened, and the officer was right behind him.”
Bryan Joyner lives next door to the damaged house.
Joyner told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that both his Honda Accord and his sport utility vehicle were among the six vehicles totaled by the suspect.
“The Honda Accord was actually turned over on its side, completely crushed in on the driver’s side,” Joyner said. “The SUV, the back end was tore up pretty bad.”
He called the entire incident “surreal” and said he was “in awe that one person could do that much damage.”
“This is a quiet little pocket of Atlanta, and you don’t wake up to something so traumatic,” Westbrook said. “We have speed bumps and it usually slows people down, but he was running from the police so he obviously was going a lot faster.”
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