NORTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A Detroit man is in the Fulton County jail after Sandy Springs Police said he rammed one of their officers.
Police told Channel 2′s Mike Petchenik a license plate reader flagged an SUV as stolen Aug. 27 and sent an e-mail alert to officers on patrol nearby.
“One of our officers was in the area of Roswell Road and Windsor Parkway when the alert came out,” said Sgt. Salvadore Ortega. “He immediately located the vehicle. He got behind it, he tried stopping it.”
Dash cam video shows the driver, identified by police as Blake Benford, turn into an nearby shopping center, pop a U-turn and then crash head-on into another squad car that was trying to catch up to him.
“The perpetrator continued driving,” Ortega told Petchenik. “A short time later he crashed and he was apprehended after a foot chase.”
Police posted pictures of the damaged SUV and squad car on social media.
“Fortunately he didn’t have any major injuries. He was checked out and released,” Ortega said of the officer whose vehicle was rammed. “There’s no such thing as a routine traffic stop. When you turn those blue lights on you don’t know if the person is going to stop, if they’re going to flee, if they’re going to fight.”
Police charged Benford with a number of offenses including aggravated assault on a police officer and theft by receiving a stolen vehicle.
“We got him so everybody is happy,” Ortega said.