This screenshot from a GDOT traffic camera shows a crash on I-75 in Dalton, Ga., on Wednesday, August 22, 2018.
Two people suspected of shoplifting were in custody Wednesday evening after a multi-agency chase down Interstate 75 from Cleveland, Tennessee, ended in a fiery crash in Dalton, Georgia, and an officer-involved shooting.
The episode started at around 5:05 p.m. in Cleveland, when a man and a woman reportedly shoplifted $600-$700 worth of merchandise from the Kohl’s department store on Frontage Road.
CLEARED: Accident; I-75 SB, SR 52/Walnut Avenue, Whitfield Co..| 9:23P
— GDOT NW Traffic (@GDOTNWTraffic) August 23, 2018
The woman pepper-sprayed a loss prevention employee, and the man pulled out a gun and told the employee, “I’m going to shoot and kill you,” Cleveland Police Department spokeswoman Sgt. Evie West told the Times Free Press.
The suspects then fled in a blue Toyota Corolla and headed south on Interstate 75 toward Hamilton County and eventually into Catoosa and Whitfield counties in Georgia.