Two men were apprehended by the Madison County Sheriff’s Department after a high-speed chase in Hull Tuesday afternoon.
Robbie Stringer, 25, Athens, was charged with fleeing/attempting to elude a police officer, obstruction of officers, speeding, passing in a no pass zone, driving on wrong side of road, driving while license suspended/revoked, failure to obey traffic control device, failure to maintain lane, reckless driving and firearm/knife possession during a crime.
Xavier Fanchon Guest, 20, Athens, was charged with obstruction of officers and firearm/knife possession during a crime.
According to a press release from Sheriff Kip Thomas, the county 911 center received a call shortly after 5 p.m. about a possible kidnapping involving two black males and a black female.
The vehicle was described as a burgundy PT Cruiser with an unknown Florida tag on the vehicle. A vehicle matching that description was spotted by Deputy Matt Pilkington on Hwy. 172 heading towards Hwy. 72.
Deputy Pilkington got behind the vehicle and tried to stop it, but the driver refused to pull over. Deputy Pilkington and Deputy Jim Reavis chased the vehicle down Hwy. 72 towards Hull. The vehicle then turned onto Glenn Carrie Road.
Deputy Jason Ring attempted to deploy stop sticks but was unable to do so because of traffic conditions on Glenn Carrie Road. When the suspect vehicle got to the intersection of Glenn Carrie Road and Hwy. 29, the vehicle struck Deputy Jeff Strickland’s patrol vehicle, which was blocking the intersection, and spun out of control into the BB&T bank entrance, stopping on the curb.
Stringer and Guest ran from the vehicle and were apprehended by Madison County deputies after a short foot chase.
The vehicle was searched and approximately four pounds of marijuana and a handgun were found. During this incident, a bystander’s vehicle was also hit and slightly damaged. There were no injuries during the incident.
“I am extremely proud of the way that my deputies handled this situation,” said Thomas. “Their caution and experienced decision making ability enabled this potentially dangerous situation to be resolved without injury to themselves or any citizen.”
What if the driver of the car that was hit at the intersection of Glenn Carrie and 29 had been seriously injured or even killed.
that was the wrong time of day to be chasing anyone, at least in this area that's always congested at that time of day.
I think the "sheriff" needs to rethink his chase policy.
BTW, what happened to the "kidnapping"? Seems that wasn't one of the charges. HUM!
at least 4(four) Madison County Deputies
on the scene, plus several unmarked MC cars and at least
3 state troopers.If it was such a minor "incident,
and these deputies are so skilled, my question is
why alomost an hour later are there still so many of
our deputies on the scene? And who during that time was
patroling the rest of the county? I also agree with
concerned citizen, what happened to the possible
kidnapping? Seems a little bit like our new authorities
were trying to make a point, and it didn't exactly end the
way they wanted it to (the fact one of our patrol cars was
involved in a potentially life threating "incident").
This county isn't exactly Fox 5 crime material, but let
a few more "incidents" like this happen and we are sure
to be.
Interesting..deputies taking too long to make sure they are dotting "i's" & crossing "t's". Yes, skilled deputies that care about how they do their job. What "point" were they trying to make? That the road deputies really do know how to respond when they get a call. You may not care for the new sheriff/capt. but don't take that out on the deputies. Not a "convenient time/road" for this to have happened but I guess someone forgot to tell the drug runners. Before 3:00 or after 6:00 may have been better.
Deputies acted responsibly & professionally given the kidnapping info they had. When the suspects were caught is when the truth became clear-no kidnapping. As for FOX 5, let them make the criminals aware that--WE DON'T WANT THEIR KIND HERE, WE WON'T TOLERATE THEIR MESS & JUST KEEP OUT OF MC!
I don't believe I said anything about not caring for our
new sheriff, and it doesn't really matter whether I like
the guy or not because fact is, he's sheriff for the next
four years. As far as taking it out on the deputies, okay
will it please you if I say "It's all Kips fault!" Probably
not because fact is even if Kip did make all the decisions
in this event, skills and knowledge are still needed in
every single one of those deputies patroling our roads.
So whether it was Kip or the deputies I don't really care
I'm simply stating an opinion based on the information we
as citizens were given in the above, and what I witnessed
as I drove by that evening. I would be just flipping with
joy if it were fact that they really knew how to
respond to a road call. But to put it bluntly,
did we really need that many deputies
dotting their "I's" and crossing their "T's"
on the same job just to make sure everything
was covered?? I certainly hope it doesn't take that many
deputies to handle a simple accident everytime
one occurs. Maybe with the time and experience our
recently fired deputies had this accident never would
have happened and comment #12 wouldn't be exactly right in
saying, "Now we've got to replace or repair a county
car at the tax payers expense".
The chase resulted in getting two armed criminals and four pounds of pot off the street, with nobody hurt. Sounds like a good day to me!!
As for the cost...GA law doesn't follow the counties budget issues. Hmmm, patrol car vs your life! Oh, easy to change your mind when it hits home!! You can replay it but immediate decisions don't allow for that. The fact is is that deputies have SECONDS to decide how to react and to be correct in that judgment. NO replay and NO 3-5 years to prepare a case as the lawyers have. That training and experience is what enables them to act accordingly for everyone involved. Huge responsibility! Most people wouldn't consider that career. Personal feelings re: Kip shouldn't be used against the deputies. It's their job & they don't get to pick the boss.
Given the info they had, MC deputies did their job appropriately, efficiently and professionally.
NO One would of known for sure if they had kidnapped
anyone. THEY DID THEIR JOB!!!!!!! Stop complaining. What
if those criminals had kidnapped your child or wife????
would you still be saying, they picked a bad time of day to
chase them at High Speed. My Gosh people GROW UP!!! Do you
actually think MC sheriffs office should of just sit back and
let them go just because they were driving to fast for the
time of day???? Madison County Deptuies and Sheriff Thomas
Did a wonderful job and I feel safer knowing they are here.
one and hopefully your smart enough to stay away from
our new deputies and you can keep your clean
driving record!!
employees can't handle a little criticism then I would
suggest politics are not for them. And yeah it did turn
out fine,just one less patrol car on our roads,
no one was injured, and apparantly no one
was kidnapped either. BIG HOOORAH!
With the exception of one, this incident involved EXACTLY THE SAME DEPUTIES who worked under Sheriff Clayton Lowe, and it was handled no differently under the new Sheriff.
As for the chase down Glenn Carrie Road, if you will scroll up, you will see that the kid who just got his learner's permit and the adult with him didn't seem to have any problems. Perhaps it was because he was new enough to driving to still pay attention to his surroundings, unlike so many Madison County drivers, cell phone to ear, stereo blasting, completely oblivious to anything happening outside their vehicle, including emergency lights and sirens.
Bad guys went to jail. Nobody got hurt. In law enforcement, that's a good day. ENOUGH ALREADY!!!