The Toccoa Record

A Martin man led Georgia state troopers on a wild chase, stole a patrol car and rammed three others before troopers arrested him at 5 p.m. Monday.

Two troopers set up a road block on Rock Road in Habersham County near the Stephens County line.

David Snyder and Barry Smith were routinely stopping each vehicle to check driver identification when Samuel Roger Owen approached the road block.

Owen, 40, was driving a 1985 Chevrolet pickup truck. The pickup was stolen from Clayton County, according to Gordy Wright, deputy director of public information for the Georgia State Patrol.

Rather than going through the checkpoint with a stolen vehicle, Owen did a U-turn and sped away.

Owen had an open container of alcoholic beverage and a firearm in his truck. Owen was also driving the truck without insurance or a correct tag.

Wright said Owen changed the tags to conceal the identity of the vehicle.

When Owen fled in his truck, Snyder and Smith gave chase. They called for help and troopers Jason Stephens, Anthony Coleman and Cpl. Mike Hopkins came to their assistance.

Owen turned onto Highway 365 and headed towards Clarkesville. Highway travel wasn’t cutting it for Owen, so he veered off the roadway and crashed through a pasture fence.

Bounding across the pasture in his truck, he ended up off-roading for about a mile, according to Wright.

After crossing the pasture, he bounced back onto the roadway near Glade Creek Road.

Troopers tried to end the chase. Nudging the stolen vehicle from the side with their patrol cars, they tried to "pit" the fleeing suspect.

For over five miles, their attempts to throw Owen’s truck into a controlled spin were unsuccessful.

Owen was driving across someone’s lawn when troopers finally managed to pit his truck.

Undaunted, he threw the truck into reverse and tried to continue his escape attempt while driving backwards across the lawn.

This didn’t work so well, and he came to a jolting stop when he backed into a heat pump of someone’s home.

When Owen leaped from his truck, so did a Georgia state trooper. Owen faked out the trooper, who slipped and fell in the wet grass.

In his haste to collar Owen, the fallen trooper had left his patrol car door open and the keys inside. Owen seized the opportunity and commandeered the patrol car.

The chase continued with troopers and suspect alike driving Georgia State Patrol cars.

With the stolen patrol car’s light bar still flashing, Owen veered off towards Antioch Road.

Throughout the chase, more troopers came to assist Snyder and Smith until the little high-speed caravan totaled five patrol cars, counting Owen in his stolen one.

Owen shied away from making contact with troopers’ vehicles while in the 1985 pickup, but when he climbed behind the wheel of the patrol car, he changed his tactics.

When the troopers tried to pit him in the patrol car, he rammed them repeatedly, Wright said.

Wright said Owen was trying to get to Toccoa when he started the ramming.

His attacks were so violent that two troopers, Snyder and Stephens, were transported to a nearby hospital to have their injuries treated.

The troopers corralled Owen in his stolen patrol car.

When the dust settled, four Georgia State Patrol cars were badly damaged and two troopers were injured, not to mention the damaged pasture fence, heat pump and lawns. But Owen was in handcuffs.

Owen is charged with a string of offenses: Felony assault on a law enforcement officer, theft by receiving stolen property, two counts of criminal damage to government property, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, robbery (for taking the patrol car), driving under the influence of alcohol, open container, fleeing and attempting to elude, leaving the scene of a wreck, no insurance and displaying the wrong tag to conceal identity.

Owen waits for trial in Habersham County Jail. No bond will be set.