A patrol officer saw a car cruising through south Cobb County on Monday and got a hit on his license plate reader that the vehicle was stolen.
One of the passengers in the car proved to be a woman wanted on murder charges in Nashville, Tennessee, and the notification led to Cobb County police arresting the murder suspect.
The police department on Saturday released a YouTube video that showed dashcam and bodycam footage of the pursuit and arrest.
Jakira Coleman-Griffen, a 20-year-old Detroit, Michigan woman, admitted to police to killing the owner of the stolen vehicle after being captured in Cobb.
According to police, the incident began when Cobb County officer Kevin Meuse spotted a 2017 Hyundai Accent traveling along a two-lane woodside road. His Flock license plate reader pinged the car as being reported stolen out of Tennessee.
Meuse attempted to stop the car, but it fled down Riverside Parkway. Following a brief chase, Meuse used a PIT maneuver on the car near I-20 that sent it spinning into a median.
But the driver was able to regain control of the car and began trying to flee again when another officer swooped in and performed a second PIT maneuver.
That disabled the car so police could take the driver and passenger into custody. Officers were initially focused on the fact that the car was stolen.
After identifying the two suspects, they quickly learned that Coleman-Griffen was being sought in Nashville in connection with the death of 60-year-old Gary McClain.
According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, McClain was found shot dead inside a motel room there Jan. 9. Nashville police said he was seen arriving at the motel with Coleman-Griffen. They suspected that she stole his 2017 Hyundai Accent.
It was the car in which Cobb County police captured Coleman-Griffen riding with another man. Cobb County investigators did not identify the man driving the stolen vehicle. They said he too was a suspect in McClain’s killing. Nashville police could not be reached to confirm that Saturday.
According to Cobb County police, both suspects were armed with handguns that may have been used in the Nashville homicide.
Nashville detectives questioned Coleman-Griffen overnight Jan. 12 and say she admitted to shooting McClain in the head. Investigators got a homicide warrant for her arrest. She was expected to be extradited to Nashville from Georgia, authorities said.
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