WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — Brand new body camera footage shows the moment a deputy stopped suspected carjackers.
It all went down Tuesday afternoon on Interstate 840 in Williamson County.
Smyrna police were dispatched Tuesday to the 1300 block of Hazelwood Drive in response to a carjacking. Three individuals surrounded the victim’s vehicle while he was looking in the trunk; at least one was brandishing a firearm.
The suspects then stole the vehicle, a red 2012 Infiniti G37, and drove away.
Later, at 11:33 a.m., police were dispatched to the 1800 block of Almaville Road in response to another carjacking. The same three suspects again surrounded a vehicle with at least one brandishing a firearm.
They then stole that vehicle, a silver 2019 Infiniti QX50 SUV.
Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol were all involved in the search for the suspects.
With a helicopter in the air, WCSO found the red Infiniti on I-840. WCSO Deputy Sergeant Steve Mitchell waited with stop-sticks — his body camera rolling.
When the stolen red Inifiniti neared Mitchell on I-840, he deployed the stop-sticks. The suspects in the stolen car attempted to circumvent the spikes by driving over the median.
"Unfortunately for them, fortunately for us, they were unable to do so and ended up on top of the berm there in the center of 840," said Deputy Chief Mark Elrod of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office.
Mitchell — calling for backup, which was about four minutes away — ran to the suspects in the car as they were stuck in the median.
The passenger in the car ran away. The driver, Christian Cooke, was apprehended by WCSO.
With Cooke taken into custody, the other two carjacking suspects, as well as the stolen SUV, were still to be found.
Those two — Cameron Nash and Artavius Lee — were soon captured in Henderson County by THP.
All three suspects have been charged with two counts of carjacking, one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and two counts of theft.
Cooke and Nash were booked into Rutherford County Adult Detention Center.
Lee was taken to Henderson County Jail, where he faces additional charges of driving without a license, evading arrest, and possession of schedule 6 drugs; he is being held on a $5,000 bond and is on hold for Smyrna Police.
"It's always a good feeling when we're able to do good and put the bad guys away," Elrod said.
