SAVANNAH, GA (September 9, 2013): Two men have been charged with multiple offenses after trying to hit one police officer and then striking another’s police car with a stolen SUV following a burglary this morning.
Randolph Wilson III, 19, and Ronald Bernard Grant, 20, were taken into custody after the 10:15 a.m. burglary on the Isle of Hope, a vehicle pursuit through four precincts and foot pursuit through an east Savannah neighborhood.
Wilson was arrested on top of a house at 40th and Ash streets where he had run to avoid Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police patrol officers. Grant was arrested nearby after officers from the Islands, Central, Downtown and Southside precincts and the SCMPD K-9 unit saw his foot under a house.
Wilson has been charged with two counts of burglary, theft by receiving (auto), obstruction by fleeing, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of a drug related item and felony obstruction. Grant has been charged with reckless driving, fleeing and eluding, two counts of aggravated assault, theft by receiving (auto), obstruction by fleeing and burglary.
Both suspects have previous arrests. Wilson was recently released from jail and is on probation with an ankle monitor.
Four officers carried Wilson from the rooftop where he continued to resist arrest even after he was forced prone on the perch of the house. He had dropped an item into the chimney and threatened to roll off the roof and tried to kick another officer off.
Islands Precinct officers were responding to a burglary in which the door of a house had been kicked in on Raleigh Drive and several items, including two large televisions and a handgun, had been taken. The burglary was similar to one on the 2400 block of Norwood Drive reported this weekend.
An officer on the 200 block of Oatland Island Road located a white Toyota RAV4 matching the description of the vehicle used in the burglary in front of another house and exited his vehicle to approach. The driver reentered the SUV and drove toward the officer, forcing him to squeeze between his car door and his car’s body to evade the moving vehicle. The Toyota later collided with the front of a Metro police car driven by a K-9 officer at Ott and Henry streets. No injuries were reported.
Police pursued the Toyota through several precincts until they were advised to back off for fear of forcing a traffic accident. But they continued to observe the vehicle from several blocks back until it stopped near 39th and Ash streets in the Live Oak neighborhood and the occupants ran.
By then, police had surrounded a nine-block area and neighbors helped point to Wilson on the rooftop and the direction Grant had run. A Metro K-9 led officers to the house where he was found.
The Toyota was identified as one stolen from an automobile dealership on Abercorn Street. It bore a Kentucky license plate later stolen from another car. Inside were items taken in at least one of the burglaries.
Detectives from the Islands Precinct continue to investigate the events leading up to the arrest
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