No bond for suspect in violent police chase
DALTON, Ga. — The driver in a police chase that stretched from Cleveland, Tenn., to Tunnel Hill, Georgia, and ended with police officers shooting his accomplice remains in jail.
Judge Phillip Woodward denied 56-year-old Parrish Smaey’s request for bond Tuesday morning. Smaey, of Jonesboro, Georgia, stole clothes from a Kohl’s in Cleveland, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Cleveland (Tennessee) Police Department.
According to a Cleveland police incident
report, Smaey and 33-yearold Clinique Jashauna Jackson were shopping at the Kohl’s at 4580 Frontage St. around 4:50 p.m. on Aug. 22 when they rolled their cart full of clothes past checkout. Two employees told police they tried to stop them, but Jackson sprayed one of the employees with pepper spray.
An employee then tried to take a picture of the car’s license plate, according to the report, but security footage shows Jackson spraying that employee. As the car backed out of the parking lot, Smaey stopped and got out to pick up some clothes that he had dropped on his way to the car. Security footage shows him waving his arm at two employees. According to the report, the employees told police that Smaey waved a handgun at them.
The employees managed to capture the license number of the vehicle. Later, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office deputies found Smaey after officers in Cleveland issued a description of the vehicle, a 2016 Toyota Corolla. According to the GBI, Smaey then led officers on a chase down Interstate 75. Catoosa County deputies, Whitfield County deputies and Georgia State Patrol troopers joined the chase.
Around mile marker 341, state patrol troopers intentionally crashed into the car, stopping Smaey. He then surrendered. Jackson tried to drive away. According to the GBI, Whitfield County deputies then intentionally crashed into the car, stopping it again.
Jackson got out with two handguns and pointed them at the officers, according to the GBI. Hamilton County deputies and Tunnel Hill police officers then fired at her and hit her multiple times. As of Tuesday, she was in critical condition, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.
Smaey, meanwhile, is in the Whitfield County Jail. The agency here has charged him with driving under the influence, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, theft by receiving a stolen vehicle, use of license plate to conceal the ID of a vehicle, an open container violation, hit and run, attempting to elude police officers, driving on a divided highway, failure to maintain lane, too fast for conditions, reckless driving and driving while license is suspended.
In Cleveland, the police have charged him with shoplifting, aggravated assault, aggravated robbery and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. Police also have charged Jackson with shoplifting and aggravated assault.
The Toyota Corolla that Smaey and Jackson drove in the case belonged to Jeremy Colon, according to the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office incident report. Colon, of McDonough, Georgia, told the Times Free Press on Tuesday that someone stole his car while he was at a gas station on July 28.
He said he spotted a friend while filling up his car. As the two talked, someone slid into his Corolla and drove away. He heard from a detective in Whitfield County on Aug. 22, informing him that his car had turned up near the interstate. He didn’t know anything about the police chase and shooting until a reporter contacted him.
“I haven’t seen the car,” he said Tuesday morning. “They told me it has bullet holes in it.”
There is some confusion about his last name. While the GBI has identified him as Parrish Smaey, the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office lists him as Parrish Smaely. In the incident report, officers wrote that he also goes by Parrish Royal and Parrish Dillard. The Cleveland police incident report lists him as Parrish Royal-Smalley.
Woodward is a juvenile court judge. But he presided over Smaey’s bond hearing because the circuit’s Superior Court judges were out of town Tuesday.