Carthage police were manning a safety check point on Highway 35 South near the southern edge of that city when a car approached, but took actions that indicated they were trying to evade contact with officers.
After pulling off the highway into a private drive, the car traveled across a front yard into a nearby grassy area, pulled back onto the highway and sped north.
As it exited the Carthage city limits on Highway 35, it was pursued by three Carthage Police Department units, which followed all the way into Kosciusko, with a Mississippi State Highway Safety Patrol unit joining in the chase. Two Leake County Sheriff’s Office patrol units joined the chase at different points north of the city limits, but broke off their pursuit as the chase crossed into Attala County.
During the chase, numerous objects were thrown out of the suspect vehicle, including a string grass trimmer.
The Attala County portion of the pursuit, which began around 10:15 p.m., involved Attala County Sheriff’s deputies and continued into Kosciusko as the suspect vehicle traveled on a front tire that had been reduced to its rim.
Kosciusko Police Chief Herbert Dew said his department was alerted about the approaching vehicle chase and on-duty units were dispatched.
“What we tried to do is get to the lights and clear those intersections,” said Dew, in an effort to avoid injuries as the pursuit came up Veterans Memorial (Hwy 35 North) to the intersection of Highway 12. The Chief said the vehicle took a left there and then a right onto Highway 43 North, where it crashed just past Daylight Donuts.
“After he crashed out, we were actively involved with the search for the suspects,” said Dew.
Both the suspect and his passenger exited the crashed vehicle according to Attala County Sheriff Tim Nail.
“They bailed out and the female was taken into custody pretty quickly,” he said.
After the passenger’s arrest, Carthage police say, she told them some of the articles tossed from the vehicle during the chase were narcotics, though police have not recovered any at this time.
Abigail Isabella Thompson, 24, of Meridian, has been charged with littering, public drunk, misdemeanor marijuana possession, possession of paraphernalia, disorderly conduct, providing false information to a police officer, and felony tampering with evidence.
The male suspect, the driver of the vehicle, evaded law enforcement for a period of time during which Carthage, Kosciusko, and Attala County law enforcement searched for him, including the use of Attala County’s K9 unit.
The suspect was found hiding in a vehicle in the parking lot shared by Daylight Donuts and was placed under arrest by Kosciusko police who turned him over to Carthage law enforcement to face charges.
According to the Carthage Police Department, Dalton McMullan, 21, of Meridian, driver of the 1998 Subaru Forester, has been charged with disregard of a traffic device (five charges), no driver’s license, no insurance, failure to yield to blue lights, switched tags, littering, disorderly conduct, providing false information to a police officer, reckless driving, possession of paraphernalia, felony fleeing and felony tampering with evidence.
The Leake County Sheriff’s Office is not expected to file any charges against the suspects, and neither the Attala County Sheriff’s Office nor the Kosciusko Police Department have filed charges in the case at this time.
Dew said that could change, however.
“We have no pending charges against him at this time, but possibly we could have some,” he said.
