PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. — Three teens are now facing charges after law enforcement arrested a man who they said ran away from the scene and crashed a car during a chase in Paulding County on Monday.
The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office says those teens are charged in connection to a May 15 shooting in Buckhead.
Paulding County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sergeant Ashley Henson says it started when the Cobb County Police Department came to their deputies to help with an investigation on a Cobb County drive-by shooting that was linked to a separate drive-by shooting, which happened in Paulding County last Friday.
Cobb Police’s investigation led them to a house on Nebo Road. Henson says several rounds of gunshots were fired at that home on June 25.
While conducting surveillance on that house, officers said they saw some people had weapons and told Paulding deputies to lookout for a red Honda Civic passenger car that left the home, Henson said.
Around 2:15 p.m. Monday, a deputy found the car on Nebo Road in the area around South Paulding Middle School and tried to stop it.
Henson says the Honda Civic drove off when the deputy tried to activate his emergency equipment for a traffic stop. The driver drove down a driveway, hit a parked car, and then made way back to Nebo Road.
After what deputies described as a "short" chase, the car crashed at the corner of Nebo Road and Jack Weldon Drive and a man ran off into the woods.
Henson says the deputy waited for other units before going after the suspect because he was potentially armed and dangerous. When help arrived, law enforcement initiated a search in the area.
Henson says after hours of searching, someone called 911 saying they spotted “suspicious person” who matched the suspect description in the area around Seals Road and Ridge Road – which is where deputies later found and arrested him.
The 20-year-old man had a gun when he was arrested. He’s facing multiple charges including fleeing and attempting to elude, obstruction, theft, possession of a gun during the commission of a crime, carrying weapons without a valid weapons permit, driving while unlicensed, possession of marijuana, hit and run, and failure to notify after hitting an unattended vehicle.
Deputies say more charges are likely to come since this is an ongoing investigation.
Shortly after the car chase, Henson says Paulding deputies and Cobb officers surrounded the house on Nebo Drive and told occupants to come outside, according to the Paulding Sheriff’s Office. Law enforcement then got a search warrant, and subsequently arrested several people and seized multiple guns.
The sheriff’s office confirmed that three teens -- ages 17, 18 and 19 -- were arrested at the home.
Paulding deputies say there were warrants issued for all three teens' arrests for aggravated assault in connection to a May 15 shooting that happened at the Peninsula Apartments at 2591 Piedmont Road Northeast.
Three people were injured and they were all innocent bystanders, shot after a pool party at the Buckhead apartment building that Saturday night.
That was the same weekend there were at least 19 people shot and six dead in the Atlanta.
All three teens are being held in Paulding County and are awaiting transfer to Fulton County.
Anyone with information about the drive by shooting can call the anonymous Paulding County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Tip Line at (770) 443-3047.