Alleged Spring Hill shoplifters lead officers on high-speed chase
SPRING HILL, Tenn. (WKRN) — Two Spring Hill shoplifting suspects are behind bars after leading a dozen law officers on a high-speed chase up I-65 on Wednesday afternoon.
Just before 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, Spring Hill police stopped two women, accused of shoplifting, on Saturn Parkway. According to police, the women in the vehicle would neither roll down their windows nor comply with officer commands.
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At one point, one of the suspects could be heard yelling, “I don’t know what I am being pulled over for.” An officer then responded, “For shoplifting. Stop.”
According to police, neither the driver, Santisha Ezell, 27, nor her passenger Chelsea Williams, 26, would comply.
That’s when the car drove away. The initial officers did not pursue but radioed ahead to another unit at Saturn Parkway and the 65 junction. It’s there that a second Spring Hill unit and a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer pulled the 2015 Silver Impala over a second time.
Body cam footage shows the trooper knocking on the driver’s side window multiple times. The driver, Ezell, did not roll the window down. After a minute or so, Ezell floored it, coming close to grazing the nearby trooper.
A few minutes later, THP and multiple Williamson County Sheriff’s Office officers were all driving after the alleged shoplifters. At times, the speeds reached close to 100 mph.
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Officers attempted to spike the car but missed. Once the chase reached McEwen Drive, video shows Ezell swerving from the far left lane, across four lanes of traffic, right at a parked Williamson County deputy. There is no apparent collision, but it is close.
Finally, one law enforcement officer was able to get in front of Ezell while a second one boxed her in from the passenger side. Using the concrete divider to keep the Impala from escaping to the left, the chase came to a conclusion.
There was a slow-speed impact where the deputy vehicle and the Impala collided. All vehicles stopped and then multiple officers got out of their cars with weapons drawn, yelling at the women and pulling them from their vehicle.
After a 30-minute chase, the driver maintained she had done nothing wrong. On the way back to the squad car, a deputy could be heard reminding the passenger that the women almost collided with an officer at high speed.
A high-speed pursuit like that is a dangerous situation for officers, suspects, and others on the road. Lt. Mike Foster of the Spring Hill PD said they have to weigh the factors involved in a potential chase.
“Can we apprehend them another way? Do we know who they are? And if the risk outweighs those we terminate the pursuit because it is not worth it,” said Foster.
So what might have been just shoplifting charges are now serious felonies for the two women.
The driver, Ezell, is in the Williamson County jail charged with multiple felonies including, felony evading, reckless endangerment, aggravated assault on a first responder, and driving on a suspended ID. Her bond is $42,000.
A check of Ezell’s criminal history in Metro showed only driving infractions that include 2022 violations like no driver’s license, no seat belt, and expired registration.
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The passenger, Williams, was taken to the Maury County jail. She’s charged with felony shoplifting and accessory after the fact. The 26-year-old’s Metro history showed Williams was charged in 2019 with domestic assault.
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