Two men were arrested Sunday after trying to escape Chattanooga police as they left the Hooters parking lot on Brainerd Road.
Brandon Rogers, 18, and Jeffery Thomas, 20, are both charged with evading arrest, three counts of possession of a firearm with the intent to go armed, two counts of theft of property and two counts of possession of a controlled substance, according to court records.
Brandon Rogers, left, and Jeffery Thomas are shown in this composite photo. (Photos: hcsheriff.gov)Thomas is additionally charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.
The two, who are known gang members, were spotted by a Chattanooga police officer in the Hooters parking lot Sunday evening, court records say. The officer recognized the vehicle as one that had run from police earlier that day.
The officer parked his car in front of the suspects' vehicle and told them to exit, but the driver, Thomas, began backing out of the spot.
He then "took off forward and made a hard left turn, causing [the officer] to jump out of the way to not get hit," an arrest report states. The vehicle looped around the parking lot and sped toward the exit, narrowly missing another officer's car.
People who were in the parking lot had to rush inside out of fear of being hit, the officer detailed in the report.
The suspects fled eastbound on Lee Highway before crashing into a telephone pole at the 5900 block, according to the report. Both Thomas and Rogers fled on foot but were caught not long after.
Police found a pistol under the passenger's seat, and two stolen pistols, one in a backpack and one under the driver's seat. They also found 116 grams of marijuana and 40 grams of "unidentified blue pills."
And in the center console, police found $2,840 wrapped separately with rubber bands.
Neither Thomas nor Rogers claimed the guns, cash or drugs, the report states.