A 19-year-old was allegedly on his cellphone while driving in Duluth late last month.
When an officer spotted him and tried to pull him over, he drove away, caused a wreck and stole a woman’s cellphone during his escape, police said.
Emmanuel Holcomb is still wanted on half a dozen charges after the incident April 23, which began on Pleasant Hill Road near Hill Drive around 5 p.m., according to a Duluth police incident report obtained by AJC.com.
The officer said he spotted Holcomb driving a blue SUV while using a cellphone in his right hand, the report said. After turning on his lights and siren, Holcomb allegedly sped off, leaving the officer to call off the chase.
Shortly after ending the chase, however, a person ran up to the officer and said there was a bad crash farther down the road near Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, the report said. At the intersection, the officer spotted the same blue SUV, which had crashed into another vehicle.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
The driver who was hit said she was OK, but other witnesses said Holcomb ran away from the scene while carrying a gun, the report said. A second officer spotted the suspect nearby in the 3800 block of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard.
Before being spotted, Holcomb allegedly asked a woman to borrow her cellphone to call his mother. He called his mom and said he had crashed her car, but when the officer spotted him, he hung up and ran away with the woman’s phone, the report said.
Police searched for about an hour and a half for him, but Holcomb was never found, the report said. His mother ended up calling police and identifying her son as the person they were chasing.
While searching, the stolen cellphone and the gun were both found. Police obtained warrants for theft by taking, hit-and-run, fleeing police, reckless driving, failure to maintain lane and violating the Hands-Free Act, records show.
Holcomb has two prior arrests in Gwinnett County. In February 2018, he was charged with loitering on school property, and he was charged with two counts of battery and one count of third-degree child cruelty in October 2017.
Anyone with information about the incident or Holcomb’s whereabouts is asked to contact police at 770-476-4151.
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