Police identified the two people killed Tuesday morning after a wrong-way driver crashed into a truck during a chase.
Adolphus Knight, 19, of Riverdale, and Kalif Patterson, 38, of Dalzell, S.C., were both killed and one passenger was taken to the hospital. The crash was the result of a pursuit over a stolen car, police said.
A Mazda SUV was taken from a Chamblee BP gas station Monday night, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Henry County police said the car was tracked in the McDonough area by a global positioning system.
Officers spotted the car in the parking lot of a hotel off Mill Road and tried to stop it, police spokesman Capt. Joey Smith said in a statement. When the driver of the Mazda —who authorities identified as Knight — hit the driver’s door of an officer’s car, a chase began.
Officers were pursuing Knight on I-75 North about 2 a.m. when the vehicle exited the interstate at Jodeco Road, turned around, re-entered I-75 North going the wrong direction and hit a Ford F-150 head-on, the Georgia State Patrol said.
Patterson was driving the Ford and died at the scene, the GSP said. Knight died while being transported from Piedmont Henry Hospital to Grady Memorial Hospital.
A passenger in the Mazda was also taken to Grady. His condition is unknown, Smith said.
According to Channel 2, at least one of the vehicles burst into flames. The blaze was so intense that part of a barrier wall was melted, the news station reported.
The crash shut down the northbound lanes of the interstate at Jodeco Road for nearly four hours, causing miles of bumper-to-bumper delays through the Southside. During the height of the lane closures, backups stretched more than six miles.
I-75 North reopened just after 7 a.m.
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