State troopers say a drunken Wilmington Island man ran over a Tybee Island police officer’s foot early Saturday morning then led them on a chase during which he reached speeds of nearly 100 mph in a residential area and repeatedly drove on the wrong side of a highway.
Cameron Bradley Knight, 25, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, felony fleeing to elude police, driving under the influence and multiple traffic offenses after the late-night pursuit that spanned much of U.S. 80 in the islands area and Johnny Mercer Boulevard, according to the Georgia State Patrol.
The incident began about 12:50 a.m. at a road check near the Lazaretto Creek Bridge on U.S. 80 at the entrance to Tybee Island, said Georgia State Patrol Cpl. J.K. Crews. Tybee police officer John Day went to talk to the driver of a blue Chevrolet Silverado when he saw open beer bottles in the vehicle. Day tried to get the driver, Knight, to pull off to the side of the road when Knight took off, running over Day’s foot and striking his leg with the truck, police said.
At the point, the truck sped into traffic, headed west on U.S. 80, and three troopers began pursuit, Crews said. Knight turned onto Johnny Mercer Boulevard at the west end of the Bull River Bridge and hit his brakes suddenly, at which point a trooper rear-ended his truck. Then he sped back up, going down Johnny Mercer at speeds of 90-100 mph and failing to stop at stop signs and red lights, Crews said.
Knight turned onto Bryan Woods Road to return to U.S. 80, where he headed west. When Knight attempted a U-turn at nearby Mapmaker Lane, a trooper tried to stop his truck using a tactic called the precision immobilization technique, or PIT, maneuver — matching speeds and tapping fenders in a way that forces the fleeing vehicle to spin.
Knight’s truck spun out, but then he sped off east in the westbound lane of U.S. 80, Crews said.
One of the troopers tried to block Knight’s path head on, and the driver’s side of the truck struck the trooper’s car. Knight kept going on the wrong side of the road before crossing back over to the eastbound lane.
There, a trooper setting up to perform another PIT maneuver, but Knight swerved into the trooper’s car, spinning himself out and crossing the median again onto the wrong side of the road. As Knight tried to speed away, Crews said, a third trooper ran his car into the driver’s side door of the truck, then pushed against it until the truck was immobile.
Troopers pulled Knight out of the truck and arrested him without incident, Crews said.
The whole chase, which covered about 10 miles, lasted only six minutes.
“He was running wide open the whole time,” Crews said.
Police said Knight did not have any outstanding warrants.
Crews said no troopers were hurt in the incident, and neither was Knight. Several cars were run off the road as Knight sped, Crews said.
Day was checked by EMS but declined medical attention, said Tybee Island Police Chief Bob Bryson.
“The traffic stop is the most dangerous thing officers can do,” Bryson said. “There’s no such thing as a routine traffic stop. Anything can happen at any time.”
The incident came after the island’s Beach Bum parade, in which people shoot water at each other. Twenty-three people were arrested on the island Friday, Bryson said, including 15 for drunken driving.