A suspect is in custody after a high-speed pursuit by a rookie Collegedale, Tennessee, police officer early Saturday morning.
Field training officer Burlon Hayworth, who was also in the pursuing patrol vehicle, spotted a grey Chevrolet Malibu just after midnight in the Walmart parking lot at 5588 Little Debbie Parkway, according to an arrest report. The car was being driven by a man, later identified as 46-year-old Denis Collins II, “who noticed my patrol unit and seem [sic] to leave the lot in a quick manner.”
So Hayworth instructed the driver, rookie officer Corey McNeal, to follow the vehicle so he could run the license plate through Tennessee’s criminal justice database, the report states. The license plate turned out to belong to a Jeep and was registered to an owner whose driver’s license was suspended.
Denis Collins II / Hamilton County JailBy then, Collins had pulled into a nearby Taco Bell drive-through and placed his order. After that, Hayworth told McNeal to initiate a traffic stop, the arrest report states.
But Collins didn’t stop and fled onto Lee Highway at a “high rate of speed” toward Interstate 75 South, according to the report. On the interstate, the pursuit reached speeds in excess of 100 mph before Collins exited onto Bonny Oaks Drive toward Hickory Valley Road.