ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A high-speed chase resulted in an ex-con going back to jail and a stolen handgun being recovered.
This crime odyssey began the night of April 21. That’s when Ashland City Officer Alexis Duncan clocked a car doing 70 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone on Highway 12 South.
The car was driven by 32-year-old Marque Collins, a convicted felon who served time in the DOC in 2015 for drug charges. His sentence expired on March 31, 2017.
According to the Ashland City police report, Collins refused to pull over and the chase ranges in speeds from 80-100 mph.
At one point, members of the Cheatham County Sheriff Dept deployed spike strips near the sheriff’s department.
Two of Collins’ tires deflated and he finally stopped around the 1500 block of Highway 12 North.
Bodycam video was animated, as officers could be heard giving commands to the driver to get on the ground.
During the arrest, the 32-year-old told officers he didn’t stop because he was smoking pot and he was afraid.
Officer: “What’s in the car?”
Collins: “Ain’t nothing.”
Officer: “You been running from the highway.”
Collins: “Smoking. I’m smoking. I’m smoking. I been smoking, man. I was just scared to stop. I’m sorry. I apologize.”
Officer: “Well you just cost yourself a felony.”
Collins: “A felony?”
Officer: “Yeah, running from the police is a felony.”
Collins: “It’s just weed.”
Officer: “It don’t matter.”
Police searched the car and found drug paraphernalia and a magazine to a .45 caliber Glock handgun, but officers did not find a gun.
According to the police report, when asked if threw the gun out the window, Collins said he did not and he didn’t know anything about a gun. Additionally, the passenger in the car also told police she never saw a gun or Collins throw a gun out the window.
That woman was not charged in connection to the chase.
Collins was arrested and charged with evading arrest, resisting arrest, driving on a revoked license and possession of drug paraphernalia.
That might have been the end of it for Collins, but two days later, a man who lives along the chase route called police and reported finding a .45 caliber handgun in the grass where he was mowing.
The man reported the gun had no magazine, but it did have a bullet in the chamber.
Police ran the gun and determined that is stolen from Nashville.
Police confiscated the weapon and then checked video from the Ashland City Liquor Store, also along the chase route.
Police saw the chase go by the front of the store, and then there was a spark as something metallic hit the pavement, and at a high rate of speed, bounced across the asphalt and toward the yard where the man found the gun.
Additional warrants were taken out for Collins, including being a felon in possession of a handgun during the commission of a felony and tampering with evidence.
Collins was picked up on May 12 by Montgomery County officers who reportedly responded to his residence on a domestic call. While there, officers learned of the pending charges out of Ashland City and Collins is now back in the Cheatham County Jail waiting for a bond hearing.
News 2 spoke to the woman whose husband was cutting grass and found the weapon. She didn’t want to reveal her name.
“He picked it up and he brought it into the house and he showed it to me, it had no clip, but there was a bullet in it, and I was like, ‘you need to call the cops now.’ That’s my godson’s house, you literally threw your gun in the middle and hit my godson’s house and my husband could’ve mowed over it, and my kids could’ve stepped on it. He was in the middle of mowing the grass in the middle of the day, like right now, and if he didn’t see it and mowed over it, there’s a possibility it could’ve shot.”
“Anyone could’ve come along, especially a young child playing in a front yard, could’ve come along and picked up that gun, and this situation could’ve been tragic,” added Ashland City Officer Devin Mabry.