No one was seriously hurt early Thursday evening when a Doraville man sped briefly into oncoming traffic in Fayetteville as sheriff’s deputies tried to arrest him on drug charges stemming from an undercover sting.

The suspect later crashed into a minivan at the intersection of Pine Trail Road and set off another collision between an unmarked sheriff’s unit and a second innocent motorist, officials said.

There was no way for deputies to know the suspect would run over a curb at the Taco Bell, drive down a ditch, along a sidewalk and then briefly on the wrong side of Ga. Highway 85 in an attempt to get away, said Capt. Mike Pruitt, who heads up the Sheriff’s Drug Task Force.

This occurred just weeks after another suspect fled deputies after an undercover drug at the Publix shopping center in Tyrone. In the Tyrone incident, deputies shot at the suspect after he attempted to run over deputies in his bid to escape. That chase also ended when the suspect ran into an innocent person’s vehicle.

Pruitt said both incidents underscore one thing: “The criminals are becoming more and more violent.”

Deputies work on plans before each undercover bust to make sure the situation is resolved safely, Pruitt said.

“We try to box in the vehicle — cut it off in the parking lot where we have control of it,” Pruitt said.

Before each undercover drug bust, a briefing is held with DTF agents and the SWAT team members who are participating, Pruitt said. They plan how to block the exits and “box in” the drug suspect’s vehicle, he added.

The sheriff’s helicopter is also at the ready, and Thursday it was about to assume the pursuit moments before the crash occurred, Pruitt said.

“The thing we have no control of is the bad guy,” Pruitt said. “He was gonna do everything he could to get away.”

It took one minute and seven seconds between the time the suspect sped off until the crash occurred, Pruitt noted.

Referring to the Tyrone Publix incident, Pruitt said his officers are trained not to shoot if others are in the background, but action had to be taken after the driver tried to run over deputies and ram deputies’ cars.

Drug dealers typically arrange to make deals in public places to protect themselves, Pruitt said. Drug dealers are known to rob each other of drugs and money and shoot each other, so operating in public reduces the chances of either scenario occurring, Pruitt said.

Pruitt said undercover agents sometimes get to choose where the deal goes down, and sometimes they don’t. When they can choose the location, they pick one where the public is protected better, he said.

As to criticism that the DTF is “luring” drug dealers to Fayette, those thoughts are unfounded, Pruitt said. The DTF specifically targets dealers who supply Fayette County, identifying them with the help of other persons arrested locally on drug charges. This process is called “going up the ladder.”

With just six full-time agents, the DTF is understaffed, Pruitt said, and he hopes to convince the county commission to add two or three more positions to combat the increasing violence of drug dealers caught in undercover stings.

Pruitt, who has spent almost all of his 27-year law enforcement career working drug operations, said stronger penalties also are needed for people who run from police officers.

“We don’t want anybody getting hurt, not us police officers and certainly not anyone from the public,” Pruitt said.