MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man will spend the next 15 years in federal prison after leading authorities on a multi-state chase and shooting a Mississippi police officer, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
Cody Dimmett of Marietta, Georgia, was sentenced Friday to 183 months in federal prison followed by five years of supervised release.
According to information presented in court, in May 2021, the FBI and Southaven Police were notified that the 29-year-old, who was wanted for multiple warrants, would be traveling through the area.
When authorities saw Dimmett’s vehicle, they began chasing him. Eventually, the chase ended in Memphis, where Dimmett got out of the car with an SKS rifle and fired multiple rounds. One officer was shot in the arm.
Afterward, the Department of Justice said Dimmett got in the officer’s vehicle and sped away. He was later spotted in Arkansas and led officers on another pursuit.
During the chase, Dimmett turned on the vehicle’s blue lights and drove more than 120 mph before crashing in Palestine, Arkansas. He ran away after the crash.
He surrendered to authorities several hours later.
WREG initially reported that investigators believed the chaos began after Dimmett was angry because he wasn’t invited to a neighbor’s house for a game night in the Atlanta area.
The DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department, FBI, Memphis Police Department, and state and local police departments in Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia also assisted in the investigation.