Eatonton and Madison police officers and deputies with the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Forsyth man on June 23 after a lengthy pursuit that began on I-20 and ended in Eatonton.
Amir Khalil Sharif Shaheed, 25, is charged with reckless driving, failure to yield right of way to an emergency vehicle, and driving on the wrong side of the road.
The incident started when law enforcement was notified of a reckless driver heading eastbound at around 10 p.m. in the area of milepost 105 with no headlights on.
Deputy Christopher Lash went to the Newborn Road overpass and observed a vehicle weaving on the interstate, so he decided to catch up with it. Cpl. Travis Stubbs of the MPD, radioed that he was stationary on the Monticello Road overpass in Madison. By that time, Lash was catching up with the vehicle that was failing to maintain its lane and notified Stubbs.
Stubbs and Lash pursued the vehicle, and it left I-20 at Exit 114.
As the vehicle fled, Stubbs saw the driver throwing items out the window as it proceeded southbound in the northbound lanes.
Lash got in front of the vehicle and then saw a car heading toward the fleeing vehicle in the northbound lanes.
According to the report, Lash slowed down to prevent a head-on collision, and the vehicle returned to the proper travel lanes.
Speeds during the following pursuit reached speeds approaching 110 mph, and the fleeing driver headed into Putnam County.
Lash caught up with the vehicle near Eatonton and began to position his patrol unit for a PIT maneuver, but the vehicle turned left, crossed the median, and crashed into a sign.
Lash, Stubbs, and Eatonton police officers ran to the vehicle with weapons drawn, but the driver had fled the scene.
Bystanders called out that the driver had gone into the woods, and Lash saw someone in a brown shirt and black pants running along the wood line northbound approximately 150 yards ahead of him.
Lash pursued and eventually caught up with the suspect, finding him face down on the ground. Stubbs and Lash secured the suspect in handcuffs and searched him before his arrest.
His driver’s license then identified Shaheed.
Stubbs notified Lash that some of the items thrown from the vehicle had been found in Morgan County, including a bag of ecstasy pills and a firearm magazine. A firearm was found later in the Tractor Supply parking lot by an employee.
Shaheed was then transported to the Morgan County jail by Stubbs.