OCILLA, Ga. (WALB) - After Friday’s high-speed chase through Ocilla, WALB spoke with a witness who saw the successful PIT maneuver in action.

“That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Gary, a witness and employee of Jack’s on North Irwin Avenue. “I ain’t ever seen something like that before. He ran for about five minutes before they caught the guy.”

On Friday afternoon around 2:30 p.m., Georgia State Patrol (GSP) attempted to pull over a 45-year-old Ocilla resident, Mantarbi Dix, for speeding on Georgia 135. GSP said Dix initially complied with the stop before speeding away from troopers, starting a high-speed chase.

“At that point, Georgia State Patrol deemed this to be a very unsafe act and decided to end the pursuit using a precision immobilization technique, also known as PIT,” said Commander Hudson Moyle with the South Central Drug Task Force.

The high-speed chase ended on North Irwin Ave when a GSP Officer successfully executed a PIT maneuver. After that, the suspect exited the vehicle and fled into the wooded area behind Jack’s before being brought down by local law enforcement.

Commander Moyle continued, “in the height of it, an Ocilla Police Department vehicle did accidentally bump into a GSP Trooper. The Trooper was fine, got up and continued the chase. He received maybe a bump or a scrape, but no major injuries happened.”

After capturing Dix, the South Central Drug Task Force said it found 27 grams of ecstasy in his vehicle.

“That amount is not a personal amount. A personal amount is one tablet, maybe two if you’re a heavy user. To have a couple hundred on you is showing that this was meant to be distributed to our community,” added Moyle.

Commander Moyle said narcotics like these are important to get off the street because they often lead to other crimes.

Investigators said the outcome was as good as it could have been, considering the suspect drove at such a high speed through town in the middle of the afternoon.

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