Police release dashcam footage of 120 mph chase that sent car into 62-year-old woman’s house

The silver Kia had gotten away from police once the night of March 14. It wouldn’t get away a second time.

Less than three minutes after a North Augusta police officer switched on his lights and sirens to try to pull over a car that had already escaped one attempted traffic stop, the car was lodged in the side of a local woman’s house. Police say the chase had exceeded 120 mph.

It was the second chase to end in a wreck on Storm Branch Road in a month.

Gwen Thomas was on her computer in the living room when a high speed chase ended after the driver lost control of his car and crashed into the side of her home.

“It felt like an earthquake,” Thomas told WRDW, an Augusta TV station.

On dashcam video obtained by The State, smoke can be seen pouring from the car, which is stuck in the splintered hole in her wall. A law enforcement officer can be seen spraying a handheld fire extinguisher into the car, and others try to put out the flames with a garden hose, but that does little to stop the fire that destroyed Thomas’ bedroom.

By the time firefighters arrived on the scene, approximately 20 minutes after the crash, smoke could be seen billowing from the home.

“It’s lucky she wasn’t in the bedroom,” said Thomas’ son, LaVar Thomas told The State. Despite the late hour, the 62-year-old, who suffers from hearing loss, was playing a game on her computer in the family room at the time.

LeVar Thomas said that his mother has had to start a Gofundme in order to repair the damage.

Inside the car, officers found an ID belonging to Anthony Perry. The license plate on the Kia sedan was traced to a 2003 Chevy Tahoe, which had been suspended. Officers also found drugs inside the car. Warrants were issued for Perry, the driver, for failure to stop for blue lights, possession of a stolen vehicle, reckless driving, possession of cocaine and possession of schedule IV narcotics, according to the incident report.

But it wasn’t the first wreck from a police chase on that road this year. On Feb. 8, a car overturned near Thomas’ house following a police chase.

Thomas’ next-door neighbor Terri Harmon told WRDW that the Feb. 8 chase ended in a crash in front of her house.The North Augusta Department of Public Safety said it was not involved in that crash.

Since 2019 there have been 71 collisions on the roughly 7.5 mile stretch of Storm Branch Road, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. Of those, 57 resulted in property damage and 16 people have been injured.

The chase

Officers first encountered the silver Kia when Corporal George Gymer of the Department of Public Safety, who was monitoring his radar gun, saw the car going 85 in a 45 mph zone. Gymer gave chase, joined by Officer Nicholas Smoak, and the car sped up, turning onto Jefferson Davis Highway.

The car suddenly pulled a U-turn across the grassy median and appeared to be heading away from the city. The two law enforcement officers turned off their lights and called off the chase. But minutes later, as Smoak looped his cruiser back towards Atomic Road, he spotted something familiar: The silver Kia was attempting to merge back onto the same road with its headlights off.

The public safety officer turned on his lights and sirens a second time and the Kia took off, accelerating to over 120 miles per hour, according to Smoak’s report. At times the Kia’s headlights were barely visible in the dark as it sped along the quiet country road.

The Kia made a hard left onto CCC Road where the posted speed limit is 35 mph. The video shows both the cruiser and the Kia crossing the double yellow lines in the center of the roadway, but both vehicles swerve back into their lane just before an oncoming car passes.

The blinkers on the Kia turn on seemingly at random as it blasts down the darkened road. Tall trees flash by in the darkness along the side of the road. Driving in the left lane, the Kia launches over railroad tracks. It veers left towards the woods before plowing straight into the side of Thomas’ house.

“It you’re going any amount of speed you hit that hump, you’re going to jump,” LaVar Thomas explained.

On the dashcam footage a man in a blue-and-white checked shirt can be seen vaulting out of the car, which is now buried in the wall of Thomas’ bedroom.

In one final act of destruction he knocked over a planter, losing a shoe, and took off into the dark woods.