A high-speed chase that started in Cartersville Saturday afternoon ended in Gordon County.
The manager of Academy Sports off East Main Street near Joe Frank Harris Parkway had eyes on a black male with dreads known to attempt to pass counterfeit bills.
Upon arrival, an officer observed a suspect wearing black sweatpants with a yellow logo on the left leg and a black hoodie jogging from the entrance out to the parking lot. Employees confirmed that the male running was the fraud suspect, and he had just gotten into a white Volkswagen Tiguan with an Illinois license plate pulling out of a parking spot.
The officer got behind the SUV in the parking lot and tried to conduct a traffic stop, but it failed to yield and continued onto E Main St, toward I-75. The officer says the SUV did not obey the stop light at Liberty Drive and the stop light at E Main St and Starbucks. The driver reportedly drove at a high rate of speed and in a very reckless manner, nearly striking several vehicles and appearing to be intending to ram an automobile to get through traffic. The officer obeyed orders from a sergeant and terminated the pursuit in the area of Steak N Shake as the Tiguan continued toward I-75.
A Georgia State Patrol trooper picked up the chase. It ended with a PIT maneuver on I-75 near exit 318 in Gordon County. The trooper arrested 29-year-old Lyndell Earlee Wafford of Chicago, Illinois, whom the Cartersville officer identified through a photo as the suspect who fled.
The manager at Academy Sports stated that Wafford entered the store,
selected a shirt to purchase, and attempted to use a fake 100-dollar bill with two different cashiers for the purchase. Wafford reportedly did not obtain any funds or merchandise from the store and did not leave behind his fraudulent currency.
The Calhoun Times reports that the chase reached speeds of over 130 miles per hour, ended without any injuries, a six-year-old girl had been a passenger in the vehicle, and that the driver had been under the influence of drugs at the time of his arrest.
The Bartow County Sheriff’s Office took custody of Lyndell Wafford on Wednesday for 27 charges, including one for cruelty to a child in the first degree and two for fleeing police officers.