Second high-speed chase occurs related to car-jacking

Published 10:09 pm Tuesday, September 12, 2017

For the second time in less than a week, the pursuit of a stolen vehicle has led Selma police officers on a high-speed chase that ended on Dallas County Road 306.

No arrests were made Monday night, but the department did find a stolen vehicle believed to be used in a car-jacking in Prattville last week.

“It was the same pickup truck that was used in the high-jacking in Prattville,” said Lt. Tory Neely with the Criminal Investigations Division of the Selma Police Department.

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“Today, we found out the tag on the truck was stolen out of Autauga County, and the truck was stolen out of Brighton.”

The white Toyota Tacoma was spotted heading south on Lauderdale Street just moments after a home on the 2100 block was shot into multiple times. An officer working a detail at a nearby business on Broad Street heard the shots and went to investigate, and that’s when a nearly 10-mile high-speed chase began.

The chase turned off Lauderdale onto Fifth Avenue, went across Broad Street, turned up Franklin Street and then turned onto Highland Avenue. Another officer intercepted the Tacoma at that intersection and joined the chase. That officer tried to cut the vehicle off, but it turned down behind Payless Shoes.

From there, the stolen truck got back out onto Highland Avenue, where it was chased up Alabama Highway 14 East for several miles.

“I don’t think it ever got over 90 miles per hour because of the rainy conditions, and the tires were slick on the truck,” Neely said. “They almost wrecked a couple of times.”

The truck then turned down Dallas County Road 306, which is the same road two suspects led officers to on a chase last Wednesday.

“They went off the roadway, and they went down a trail they use, but it was too thick and muddy for us to go down in there, so we didn’t follow,” Neely said. “We went around to Gardner Road and on Harville Road and attempted to intersect them.”

The suspects parked the truck behind a home on Gardner Road and took off on foot. Neely said the suspects were not caught, but the truck was taken as evidence.

Neely said investigators with the Prattville Police Department were in Selma Tuesday to process the truck for evidence.

Neely said it appears shots were fired at the home on Lauderdale Street from a passenger in the truck because shell casings from a high-powered assault rifle were found on the hood of the car.

Investigators collected at least 17 shell casings from the scene of the shooting.

Last Wednesday a similar chase occurred when a Nissan Sentra stolen from a woman in the parking lot of a Prattville restaurant two days earlier was spotted near Wendy’s on Highland Avenue.

Two arrests were made after that chase. Keenan Reynolds, 20, the alleged driver, was charged with robbery by the Prattville Police Department for the car-jacking.

Octavius Reynolds, 23, a passenger, was arrested and charged with attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, second-degree possession of marijuana and first-degree receiving stolen property.

The Sentra was stolen on Monday, Sept. 4. Prattville investigators retrieved video surveillance that shows the woman pull into a parking lot.

“When she parked, there was another vehicle that pulled in, a white Toyota Tacoma,” said Captain Jeff Hassell with the Prattville Police Department. “While she was parking and still had her lights on, two black males exit that truck and come up to her on the driver and passenger side of the vehicle pointing guns at her.”

Hassell said the two men forced her out of her car and stole it.

Both vehicles have been recovered, but Keenan Reynolds is the only suspect in the car-jacking that has been arrested so far. Hassell said last week they were trying to determine who the other suspects were.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Selma Police Department or the Prattville Police Department.