What began as a traffic stop in the Columbus Walmart parking lot Monday morning turned into a high-speed chase involving multiple law enforcement agencies through Lowndes and southeast Clay County.
Brittany Leigh Booth and Joseph Allen Halechko, both 31, were in a vehicle Columbus police officers pulled over for a traffic violation at about 7:30 a.m., according to Capt. Ryan Rickert with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office. An LCSO deputy was at the scene to back up the CPD officer when Booth and Halechko decided to make a break for it. The LCSO deputy followed the vehicle behind Walmart into the Waverly Ferry area onto Highway 50 and into Clay County, Rickert said.
Once in Clay County, the two stopped the car and exited the vehicle, trying to flee on foot. Chief Deputy Ramirez Williams with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said the suspects pulled the vehicle over on Tibbee Road and ended up in Tibbee Creek where deputies from both LCSO and CCSO caught them. LCSO deputies took them back to Lowndes County and charged them both with felony eluding or fleeing in a motor vehicle.
The chase lasted between 15 and 20 minutes, said Rickert, adding the chase reached up to 90 miles per hour at one point. He also said during the chase, the two suspects switched seats without stopping the vehicle so that both were driving.
CPD Assistant Police Chief Fred Shelton said Tuesday that no officers were injured, nor was a CPD officer hit with the suspects’ car as they attempted to flee the Walmart parking lot. LCSO officers had initially reported Monday the suspects had bumped into a CPD officer with their vehicle.
Eluding police is the only felony charge either suspect faces so far.
Though Booth has no felony record in Lowndes County, Halechko was convicted of burglary of a business in 2003. While on probation following that charge, he was convicted of two counts of forgery and one count of grand larceny, for which he served consecutive five-year sentences.
No bond has been set for either suspect’s felony charge, though Booth faces several misdemeanor traffic violations for which her total bond is more than $1,500. Both suspects are still in custody at the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center.
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