A vehicle with two Atlanta residents who stole approximately $700 worth of merchandise from the Walmart store off Ga. Highway 54 in Peachtree City on July 15 struck a Peachtree City police officer in the store’s parking lot as he and other officers were closing in. The two were subsequently arrested on multiple charges.
Department spokesman Mark Brown said Titus Lamb, 21, of Cascade Road in Atlanta, was charged with aggravated assault, felony obstruction, felony shoplifting, fleeing and attempting to elude, aggressive driving, failure to yield, failure to maintain lane, failure to obey a traffic control device and signals required.
Destiny Nichole Knox, 20, of Cascade Road in Atlanta, was charged with aggravated assault-party to a crime, obstruction and felony shoplifting, arrest records said.
A July 15 dispatch for a shoplifting in progress at Walmart came in at approximately 5 p.m. and included a description of a male and female, each carrying a bag full of items. The subjects left the store and entered a vehicle. The police officer attempting to stop the vehicle before it could leave the parking lot was struck by the Mazda on his lower legs. The vehicle then ducked behind the Home Depot and made its way to the traffic light at Hwy. 54 and Huddleston Road.
Simultaneously with the activity in the Walmart parking lot, other officers were responding to the area. The suspect vehicle headed west on Hwy. 54 but quickly made a u-turn at Planterra Way and proceeded toward Ga. Highway 74, according to reports.
Brown said officers disengaged from the pursuit due to heavy traffic conditions and out of regard for public safety. And while officers in Tyrone and Fairburn were alerted there was something else at play that led Peachtree City officers to believe they could apprehend the suspects.
“We had sufficient information from the video taken at Walmart,” Brown said.
That information identified Lamb and Knox and quickly led to their apprehension and transport to the Fayette County Jail.
