Mercer student killed in high-speed police chase with alleged Gwinnett County escapee
A 21-year-old Mercer University student from the Atlanta area was killed Saturday night after the car she was a passenger in crashed in Macon when its driver tried to outrun the police in a two-county freeway chase, authorities said.
A Monroe County sheriff’s spokeswoman said the chase began south of Forsyth shortly before 9 p.m. when a deputy tried to pull over a southbound 2016 Dodge Charger for going 112 mph just north of the Rumble Road exit on Interstate 75.
The car didn’t stop and instead raced south onto Interstate 475 out of Monroe County and into Bibb County at speeds between 130 and 140 mph. The driver exited at Zebulon Road but then zoomed back onto the southbound freeway before getting off at the Eisenhower Parkway interchange and turning east into Macon.
The gray Dodge crashed after turning onto Bloomfield Road on the west side of the Macon Mall, rolling over several times, striking two other cars and a building near an apartment complex just north of Mercer University Drive.
Leon Jones, Bibb County’s coroner, later said the young woman killed, Sapphire Thomas, of Stone Mountain, had been expected to graduate from Mercer next year.
The driver of the Charger, Erick Guillermo Tapia-Algeria, 25, of Snellville, was jailed on multiple traffic charges, Monroe sheriff’s officials said.
He was said to have escaped from what was described in sheriff’s statement as “a probation detention center work detail in Gwinnett County,” and that he was “wanted in multiple counties for multiple warrants.”
On Monday, Monroe Sheriff Brad Freeman said it was possible that the driver, because of the general direction he was headed, was trying to get to the Mercer campus.
“But you just don’t know,” Freeman said.
The sheriff said he did not know how Thomas and Tapia-Algeria knew each other, just that “apparently they met on Snapchat ... some time ago.”
Freeman said the wrecked Dodge had been loaned to Thomas about a month ago because her car was not working.
According to Freeman, Tapia-Algeria had not said much to investigators other than to claim they were “violating his civil rights” for not returning him to Gwinnett County for a court appearance.