A Gordon County man was arrested Tuesday after a van was stolen in Resaca, Ga., and then plowed into a sheriff’s deputy’s cruiser on U.S. Highway 41 last weekend.
The Georgia State Patrol charged Jose Gonzalez-Reyes, 20, of Resaca, with driving under the influence, driving on the wrong side of the road and driving without headlights in the darkness, Sheriff Mitch Ralston said in a news release.
Investigating troopers believe that Gonzales-Reyes stole the van from a nearby house and then crossed the center line on U.S. Highway 41 and struck sheriff’s deputy Cameron Cartledge’s patrol car head-on, Ralston said.
Cartledge, who has been with the sheriff’s department since 2006, was taken to Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga and remains in the intensive care unit there, Gordon County sheriff’s office Chief Deputy Robert Paris said.
Gonzales-Reyes was flown to an Atlanta hospital and then picked up by Gordon County sheriff’s deputies and taken to the county jail Tuesday night, Paris said.