GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A traffic stop in Lilburn on Sunday turned into a police chase through parts of Cobb County that ended with several damaged cars and a man facing multiple charges.
The chase started after a family went to the Lilburn Police Department to report that they were being followed by a man driving a truck.
When they got there, an officer came out to speak with them.
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That’s when they spotted the white truck and the officer went after him.
“While they were talking to the officer they say, ‘Oh that was it right there. There goes the truck,’” Capt. Scott Bennett with Lilburn police told Channel 2′s Veronica Griffin.
Police dash camera video shows the driver of the Dodge Ram truck crashing into several vehicles, including a Lilburn police patrol car.
“He crashed into two or three motorists out on Pleasant Hill Road and I-85,” Bennett said.
Bennett said officers tried to pull him over during the mostly low-speed chase that eventually turned into a high-speed chase.
At one point, an officer tried to pull the driver over in a Walmart parking lot on Lawrenceville Highway.
“One of our officers tried to pull in front of him to try and slow him down as they exited the Walmart parking lot on Lester Road, and he gunned it and smashed into the officer’s car. And from then on it turned into a full-blown pursuit,” Bennett said.
Shortly after that, another officer tried a PIT maneuver to stop the truck, but again the driver got away after damaging several vehicles in his way.
“Gwinnett County (police) later picked up the vehicle and was able to track it to an address in Norcross and then found the suspect about a mile away matching the description with the keys in his pocket, sitting in the parking lot of a convenience store,” Bennett said.
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Salvador Torres Mandujano of Nicholls, Georgia was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, aggravated assault on a police officer and several counts of hit and run.
No one was seriously injured during the chase.
Police are still investigating why Mandujano may have been following the family.
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