Friday, December 5, 2003

High-speed shoplifter chase ends at College Park school

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A shoplifter who took three DVDs from the north Walgreens in Fayetteville led Fayette County sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed chase Monday afternoon that ended in a parking lot next to a middle school in College Park.

Donta Dewitt Harris, 35, left his truck in the parking lot near the Ronald McNair Middle School on Burdett Road in College Park and fled on foot, police said. He was later found hiding under a porch at a home on Middlebury Drive, police said.

Harris is charged with fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, driving with a suspended license and theft by shoplifting.

Over 20 unopened DVDs were found in Harris’s truck, which he ditched in an empty parking lot adjacent to the school’s football field.

The chase began after authorities were radioed a description of the vehicle involved in the Walgreen’s shoplifting, which was reported at 1 p.m. Minutes later, a Fayette County deputy spotted Harris’s truck going north on Ga. Highway 85 near Roberts Road, police said.

The chase reached 80 mph several times, deputies communicated to radio dispatchers. Harris was followed up Hwy. 85 to Ga. Highway 314 and then Ga. Highway 138 before entering a residential neighborhood off Forest Parkway. The chase then passed Bethune Elementary School which is adjacent to Ronald McNair Middle.

As the pursuit neared Bethune Elementary School, Fulton County police officers responding to the area radioed for the schools to enter “lock-down” mode as a safety precaution.