GRIFFIN, Ga. — Police in Griffin and Spalding County Sheriff’s deputies teamed up to stop a high-speed chase and arrest five shooting suspects.
They deployed extra units and were in a north Griffin neighborhood Wednesday night when they heard gunfire and were able to react quickly.
A Griffin officer, followed by a Spalding deputy, tried pulling over a car that matched the description. The sheriff says the chase out of town reached speeds of 100 miles per hour and ended when an officer deployed stop-sticks to flatten the suspect’s tires.
They arrested five suspects, all believed to be gang members. Four are from neighboring Butts County and one is from Atlanta.
“Brought it to an end without a shot fired and no use of force,” said Sheriff Darrell Dix.
They’ve been identified as Gregory Gee, 21, Jeston Morgan, 26, Deontrez Shivers, 19, Christopher Walker, 26, and Devin Brown, 20.
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“We believe those are the people responsible for the drive-by shootings, or majority of shootings that have happened here,” said Sheriff Dix.
The most recent drive-by shooting was the 6th in recent weeks in Griffin, including one where the gunmen targeted the wrong house and bullets missed hitting a 78-year-old woman by just inches.
“It was very, very scary and my mom was shaken up really bad,” said the woman’s daughter.
The Spalding County Sheriff believes the shootings are possibly connected to an unsolved homicide case from early this year involving gangs, and the violence is in retaliation.
One of the suspects is no stranger to local law enforcement. Christopher Walker was charged in the murder of a 16-year-old at a graduation party in Butts County in May 2016.
The case against him was eventually dismissed after results of ballistics testing and investigators could not find the murder weapon.
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