A 48-year-old Florida man died on I-95 after being run over by a tractor trailer while trying to eluding police on foot, according to authorities.
The incident took place near the Bryan-Liberty line at the Olive White overpass at approximately 12:30 a.m. on Dec. 14.
According to BCSO traffic unit division leader Lt. David Blige, unit member Robert Crapse pulled over Paul Anthony Lee, of St. Petersburg, for improper lane change and was talking to Lee, who said he was driving home from North Carolina, when Crapse went back to his squad car to run Lee’s license.
Blige said Lee responded by driving off. In the process, he allegedly ran over Crapse’s feet and dragged him for a short distance across the asphalt. Crapse reportedly fired two shots toward the suspect once he regained his balance.
Blige said he and the two other members of the traffic unit responded to the scene. Blige reportedly stayed with Crapse, who required medical attention, while unit members Cpl. Mark Crowe and Deputy Shane Tatum drove away in search of the suspect. Tatum spotted Lee and began a high speed chase. Georgia State Patrol and Liberty County authorities joined in.Blige said that a report came over the radio minutes later that the suspect sideswiped a tractor trailer near the Liberty-Bryan line, spun out and fled on foot into the woods. The BCSO traffic unit searched the suspect’s vehicle to allegedly find 30 pounds of marijuana in the trunk.
"While I was at the scene, an older guy traveling northbound stops and tells me ‘I think I just ran over a deer’," Blige said. "A trooper went down to check it out and found the remains of the suspect after a tractor trailer ran over him in a northbound lane."
Blige further reports that, soon thereafter, dispatch received a call of a tractor trailer pulling into the Pierceville subdivision in Richmond Hill. Blige said the truck was impounded after it was placed at the scene and was observed to have blood and other evidence on the front of it and underneath it. The truck driver, Stanley McDonald of Coconut Creek, Florida, is being charged with hit and run, according to GSP Senior Trooper Michael Reddish.
Since the incident, Crapse was still not back to work, but is expected to make a full recovery.