Kidnapping suspect arrested after chase as police fired shots

No officers were injured and one person was taken into custody after a shooting involving Gwinnett County police late Friday night.

Detectives from Gwinnett County’s criminal division are investigating the shooting, which involved an officer firing gunshots at a fleeing kidnapping suspect, police said in a news release.

Jinsuk Pei, a 23-year-old Macon man, was charged with kidnapping, obstruction, aggravated assault on a police officer and interference with government property, police said.

According to the news release, officers responded to calls about an abduction near the busy intersection of Duluth Highway and Riverside Parkway shortly after 9 p.m. A man concerned that his girlfriend was in danger reported that she went to run an errand and he had received an “alarming phone call” from the woman before she returned home.

Police said audio from the call suggested the 22-year-old woman was in immediate danger. Her boyfriend began tracking her cellphone to help officers in the area find her.

Gwinnett police spokeswoman Hideshi Valle said officers spotted a vehicle in which the woman was traveling westbound on Duluth Highway near Purcell Road. The driver initially stopped when police pulled him over. Officers said the woman got out of the passenger’s side unharmed. Pei then fled the traffic stop, running into a patrol car as he sped away, police said.

He rammed into two more patrol cars during the ensuing chase, and an officer fired multiple rounds at Pei’s vehicle, Valle said in a police news release.

Pei managed to escape on foot with minor injuries for a brief period, but police K-9s tracked him hiding in woods. He was then taken into custody without incident, police said. — MATT BRUCE