Late Friday night, just before midnight, Atlanta police said they spotted a silver Chrysler going well above the speed limit, erratically switching lanes and driving carelessly northbound on the Downtown Connector near Ga. 166.
When the vehicle’s driver refused to stop, despite traveling 99 mph in a 55-mph zone, police decided to call in reinforcements ― from the air.
With patrol cars in pursuit, the driver got off the highway at University Avenue and struck a car, authorities said. That’s when Atlanta police’s Phoenix Air Unit swooped in to help.
As the officers on the ground struggled to keep up with the speeding Chrysler, the air unit kept eyes on the car for several miles, police said.
Suddenly, the driver lost control and crashed into a tree on Paschal Boulevard near T.P. Burruss Sr. Drive in northwest Atlanta, according to police. But the pursuit was not over.
Dayvion Devonta Blake, 20, and Sergio Sanchez Summers, 25, both jumped out of the car and took off running, police said.
“Looks like he’s back up ... you got two running northbound on Paschal, coming up to MLK,” an officer in the air unit says in a video released Monday.
The footage appears to show Blake and Summers fleeing toward Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Once they’re met by police at the intersection of MLK and Paschal, the two take a chance and split up.
“One is eastbound on MLK, one is westbound on MLK,” the officer says in the video.
The man who fled east was quickly detained by police. But the other continued westbound.
In the video, as the officer from the Phoenix unit turns his attention toward the fleeing suspect, he scans the road but has lost sight of the suspect. Then, moments later, he spots him again, this time in a gap between buildings as he’s running down the sidewalk.
Three officers suddenly pop into view. The suspect is now on the ground being arrested, the footage shows.
“Westbound ... pursuit, they’re getting him detained,” the officer says in the video.
Both men were taken to the Fulton County Jail, where they remained Monday. Police said officers recovered two firearms from the vehicle.
Blake faces 13 charges, including theft by receiving stolen property, willful obstruction of law enforcement officers, and fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, online jail records show.
Summers was charged with theft by receiving stolen property, willful obstruction of law enforcement officers, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and a seatbelt violation, according to online records.
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