In a normal high-speed pursuit, Georgia State Patrol can put gloves off in a hurry. But when the US Marshals contacted GSP for help apprehending a murder suspect, that dogged determination of troopers combined with the sheer desperation of the suspect as he flees in a Ram truck is simply explosive.
After tracking down the suspect in Sugar Hill, troopers follow as he leaves a residence in his 2002 Ram 1500. While the guy is driving down the GA20 freeway, they tried initiating a felony traffic stop. However, the pickup driver had other plans.
We’ve seen some crazy high-speed police chases before, but not like this. The dashcam footage opens with two troopers casually making their way through traffic to stop the Ram. As the guy takes off instead, the lead trooper does a PIT maneuver, going hard right from the beginning.
But the big truck takes the hit like it’s nothing and the suspect floors it. With the trooper and Ram side-by-side and both lanes occupied ahead, the guy makes a move that pushes the pursuit to the next level: he starts driving at freeway speed in the grassy median.
He only stays in the median for a bit, but it’s a foreshadowing of what’s coming shortly as the chase becomes more desperate. Traffic thickens up, making the suspect choose to get onto the median again since that worked so well before.
But not too long after, he hits a bump in the grass and goes flying into the air at speed. Somehow he sticks the landing. That must’ve boosted the murder suspect’s ego, because he goes back into the median, and then travels the wrong way in an attempt to lose troopers.
With people doggedly staying in the left lane, slowing down his pursuers, the Ram driver’s strategy starts working wonders as he gains a lead. But the lead trooper works hard to keep the suspect from increasing the gap, even as he runs a red light.
That is until the trooper runs into even more traffic, including semi-trucks which don’t move over quickly. It’s almost like people don’t know what to do when police come up with lights and sirens on.
The suspect keeps driving in the median, almost wrecking out. Then he goes head-on with traffic, almost wrecking out again. It’s like the guy has nine lives or something. But his luck runs out when he blasts through the next red light, colliding with a Jeep Wrangler and disabling the new Ram truck.
And that’s the thing with running from the police: all it takes is one wrong move and all your brilliant ones (or dumb luck) won’t protect you.