LAURENS, Ga. — A 15-year-old is now in custody after taking Laurens County deputies on a car chase and manhunt.
Laurens County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Stan Wright says F.L.O.C.K cameras actually alerted their office about a stolen car from Columbus, Georgia. He says Dublin Police located the car and started the chase and Laurens deputies picked it up.
“The chase proceeded through Dublin, into East Dublin and out on Highway 29 going towards Treutlen County,” Wright explained.
He says it was around 3:36 a.m. so he says the roads were thankfully not busy, but they were still not safe.
“While the chase was going on, he [the driver] made some maneuvers trying to wreck the deputy's car,” Laurens County Sheriff Larry Dean explained.
Wright says deputies immediately performed a P.I.T. maneuver to stop the driver.
“The vehicle went into a ditch, rolled over a couple of times,” Wright said.
The driver ran away and was later caught after a neighbor reported a suspicious person in the area.
However, Wright says the suspect may still be driving if it wasn't for the pit maneuver.
“Stop the danger,” Wright said. “We try to stop it as soon as we can. Stop the danger for all the good people riding up and down here on the road."
The Laurens Sheriff’s Office held its yearly pit maneuver training last week.
“We want everybody in a patrol vehicle trained to pit,” Cpt. Sid Harrison said.
He’s the emergency vehicle trainer and says the goal is to end a chase quickly before someone gets hurt, or worse.
“You’ve got your family and a nice weekend and, all of sudden, here comes this guy and he T-bones you, and kills you and your family. All because you had someone chasing you,” Harrison said. “The deputy did exactly what he was trained to do. As soon as you can get a fender on the vehicle, you put him in a ditch."
Harrison says they guide deputies through it, getting a feel for the force of the car at high speed.
“A vehicle has a rear-quarter panel. That’s your rear tire area. You're going to put that bumper right here. He's going to turn into it and it moves the back end about 25 degrees. The car is gonna spin out,” Harrison explained.
He said deputies are already trained on how to drive as required in their mandated training. He said a pit maneuver is a standard practice and not a big deal.
“We’re just giving them a little extra so they can keep the community safe,” Harrison said.
Sheriff Dean says they value pit stop maneuvers because it's about safety.
“That's the best way to save lives is to go ahead and end the chase as soon as possible. If you run for our deputies, or try to harm our citizens, we're going to pit you and put you in a ditch,” he said.
Dean says that because the suspect is a minor, they cannot release his name.
They say they don't know if he has a criminal record at this point.