MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The trend of Memphians committing crimes in DeSoto County continues with two men involved in a deadly high-speed chase now out of the hospital and facing charges.
It was supposed to be a routine stop when Hernando Police tried to pull over a stolen Nissan Maxima on Commerce Street on Saturday, but the suspects involved had other plans.
The suspects stepped on the gas, leading to a high-speed chase going the wrong way on the highway that ended up killing two people.
“Exceeding speeds, you’ve got individuals that are trying to elude the police, get away,” Hernando Police Captain Kyle Hodge said. “Normally they do that by speed, and the way they drive, so normally it’s some erratic driving anyway.”
The pursuit and crash left to two suspects dead, and two more in the hospital. Memphians Kristopher Ford and Jessie White died from injuries after they were ejected from the car, but Terry Jackson and an underage suspect survived being thrown from the vehicle.
The two suspects who survived have been released from the hospital and could face a handful of charges, pending an investigation.
“It’ll depend on his involvement, and it’ll depend on whether or not he was driving, or exactly who was driving, and we’ll look at all those factors,” Hodge said.
This incident is the latest in a trend that sees Memphians traveling into DeSoto County to commit crimes, some of them violent.
DeSoto County authorities and residents are frustrated with the rash of issues, but police are determined to make life difficult for those who try and create problems.
“You want criminals, you want them to see patrol cars, and that’s what each of us try to do,” Hodge said. “We try to have officers in the communities, on the interstates, everywhere. So basically when criminals come down they say, ‘There’s a cop on every corner. We need to go somewhere else.”
