A police pursuit of a stolen truck in Gainesville ended in a deadly crash and the arrest of the suspect after a brief foot chase.
According to the Georgia State Patrol, troopers spotted a blue Chevrolet Silverado at 5:49 p.m. on Shallowford Road. The truck matched the description from a BOLO (Be-On-the-Lookout) alert for a vehicle reported stolen from Hardy Chevrolet in Gainesville.
Troopers attempted a traffic stop, but the driver, who was later identified as 35-year-old Daniel Thomas Davis of Jefferson, refused to pull over, leading officers on a chase through several city streets. Multiple attempts to end the pursuit using a Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) on Queen City Parkway were unsuccessful.
The chase turned deadly when the suspect’s vehicle, traveling south on Candler Road, rear-ended another car. The impact forced the second vehicle off the road and into several trees. The driver of that car later died from injuries sustained in the crash.
A witness told police, “I was going northbound, and they were going southbound. The blue truck that y’all were chasing went over in my lane. I got over as much as I could on the east shoulder. The driver of the truck swerved back to the right, struck the rear of the GMC Envoy, and then kept going. The GMC Envoy went off the shoulder and struck the tree.”
50-year-old Agustin Rivera of Gainesville was driving the Envoy. He was killed in the crash.
After the fatal collision, the Georgia State Patrol said the suspect continued to flee. Troopers made another PIT attempt on SR 332, forcing the truck into a power pole. The driver then ran from the vehicle. Troopers deployed a taser, and the suspect surrendered without further incident.
The Georgia State Patrol is conducting multiple investigations into the pursuit and crash, including a separate fatal crash investigation.
