A high-speed chase of an alleged stolen car that started in South Carolina ended in Hart County with a tasing and two arrests Tuesday afternoon, but not before doing damage to two patrol cars and the knee of a Hart County deputy.
Nikael Elijah Pennington and Jonathan Roosevelt Brown were taken into custody by the Hart County Sheriff’s Office following a high-speed chase that brought the two, as well as a female passenger who was detained but not arrested, into Hart County.
As of press time, the two face charges from Hart County Sheriff’s Office including three counts of aggravated assault, three counts of felony fleeing, two counts of theft by receiving stolen goods, two counts of theft by bringing stolen goods across state lines, two counts of obstruction of officer and one count of possession of methamphetamine. Pennington also faces charges of one count each for reckless driving, reckless conduct, possession of a firearm during commission of a crime, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, passing in a no passing zone and driving on wrong side of the road. Georgia State Patrol is bringing charges of DUI, hit and run, passing in no passing zone, driving on expired license and other traffic violations. Other charges are expected to come in from South Carolina as well. Madison Morris, Civil and Media Clerk for Hart County Sheriff’s Office said that the case is still under investigation, so there could always be more charges filed until the investigation is complete.
According to Hart County Sheriff Mike Cleveland, the chase began in Greenville County, South Carolina. Authorities from Anderson County gave chase until Hart County deputies joined in, at which point Cleveland said Anderson County stopped chasing, continuing behind at normal speeds. From there, Hart County deputies took care of the rest.
“[Pennington] turned into Norman Road, which is coming into Hartwell on the right hand side,” Cleveland said. “It’s really a dead end road. He went down there and actually went across a couple yards down there…One of our deputies planted himself in front of the car to stop him, and he hit that car in a glancing blow. He then kept on going, came back out of Norman Road, crossed over [Highway] 29 onto Liberty Hill Church road, cut across two other yards down there and one of the deputies headed him off in the backyard of the third house. He T-Boned the deputy’s car, then got out and ran…Deputies ran him down. One of the males had to be tased.”
Cleveland estimates the chase lasted about six or seven minutes “at a wide-open speed.”
“I don’t know how fast they were going when Anderson County was behind him, we’ll have to get with them and see,” he said. “But when we got behind him, he didn’t stay on the road long before turning off on Norman Road. You can’t do 80 or 90 miles per hour on it because it’s just a narrow winding road. That’s how fast he was going, I can tell you that. He was moving on when he left Liberty Hill Road and went across those two yards.”
As with most police chases, the deputies were challenged to both make a full effort to capture the suspects, while still maintaining safety of those around. Cleveland said the initial blow to the first deputy car was a result of the deputy blocking the path in order to protect nearby kids who were playing outside while the chase was going by.
As for the deputy and car that were slammed by Pennington before he and Brown bolted, Cleveland said Tuesday the deputy was being checked out in the hospital following the crash.
“Both of my deputies involved, they’re good deputies. They always have public safety in mind,” Cleveland said. “One of them is at the hospital getting his knee x-ray’d from where that car T-boned him.”
On Tuesday, Cleveland said the deputy’s leg was swollen, but that he said he was feeling better.
Cleveland said they were likely not the only ones the stolen car crashed into.
“Georgia State Patrol is working everything, and they said there were maybe a total of five different crashes involved in this chase,” Cleveland said. “Two of them of course were our two cars…we understand that the car that was being chased may have sideswiped a truck before we got behind them.”
As for all the charges the two racked up in the chase, that can get complicated with three different entities potentially having charges.
“All that’s up to South Carolina as far as who they’re going to charge with stealing the vehicle,” Cleveland said. “Our charges are two aggravated assault by motor vehicle on the driver to start with…He’ll be charged with aggravated assault [by motor vehicle], that’s because he hit my two cars. Then of course you have the traffic violations, running stop signs, reckless driving, fleeing and eluding and on and on and on.”
The charges continued to pile on following a search of the car Tuesday morning, which turned up a pistol, stuffed between the seats of the car, as well as a bag which was identified to be methamphetamine. With the bag testing positive for meth, the female passenger who was originally not charged at all will now likely also face a possession of methamphetamine charge.
Cleveland said above all else, he’s glad they were able to keep everyone safe, as there seemed to be a chance of the chase heading downtown.
“Thank goodness they didn’t go into town,” he said. “When they turned on Norman Road, I knew one way or the other we were going to have them then. Of course they came out of Norman Road, but they had already cracked a wheel down there jumping a driveway…Everybody turned out OK, so we can always be thankful for that.”