September 12, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
A motorcycle operator was taken into custody Friday after a pursuit which started in DeKalb County and ended with him crashing his bike in Warren County.
Mark Petty is charged with driving under the influence, evading arrest, and reckless endangerment among other offenses.
Lieutenant Dewaine Jennings of the Tennessee Highway Patrol spotted Petty operating a motorcycle on Allen’s Ferry Road without his headlights on during foggy conditions. He also noticed that the bike had no license tag.
As he tried to stop it, Lieutenant Jennings said the bike took off turning from Allen’s Ferry Road to Holmes Creek Road and Golf Club Drive and then back onto Allen’s Ferry Road to Highway 56 where the bike headed north. Petty then turned around at a church on Cookeville Highway and traveled back toward Smithville on Highway 56 before turning onto Smith Road and later Midway Road and then back onto Highway 70 toward the city. The pursuit continued into Cannon County from Short Mountain to West Greenhill Road in Warren County, and back into DeKalb County on Seven Springs Road, before Petty re-entered Warren County and crashed at the intersection of Capshaw Road and Highway 56.
After being taken by EMS from the jail to the emergency room of Ascension Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital, Petty left on foot while being treated but he was quickly apprehended by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department near the intersection of Riley Avenue and West Main Street.