According to recent reports, a 19 year old Atlanta man has been arrested after allegedly attacking a woman with a slab of nail-studded wood and then running from officers during the investigation.

He was finally apprehended and arrested. He is facing several different misdemeanor and felony charges.

As an Atlanta DUI Lawyer, I will focus on the criminal offense of fleeing the police in today's post. However, I will also focus on how this offense is commonly paired with DUI in Atlanta.

Fleeing the Police and DUI in Atlanta

Fleeing the Police in Atlanta is defined by Georgia Law in O.C.G.A. §40-6-395 as: 

It shall be unlawful for any driver of a vehicle willfully to fail or refuse to bring his or her vehicle to a stop or otherwise to flee or attempt to elude a pursuing police vehicle or police officer when given a visual or an audible signal to bring the vehicle to a stop. The signal given by the police officer may be by hand, voice, emergency light, or siren. The officer giving such signal shall be in uniform prominently displaying his or her badge of office, and his or her vehicle shall be appropriately marked showing it to be an official police vehicle.

The offense above is considered a high and aggravated misdemeanor in the state of Georgia. This can be accompanied with a charge of DUI. Most of the time, drivers attempt to run away from police in an attempt to avoid an arrest.

However, there are circumstances that can exacerbate the offense of fleeing - causing it to be a felony offense. These circumstances include fleeing while a driver:

(i) Operates his or her vehicle in excess of 20 miles an hour above the posted speed limit;

(ii) Strikes or collides with another vehicle or a pedestrian;

(iii) Flees in traffic conditions which place the general public at risk of receiving serious injuries;

(iv) Commits a violation of paragraph (5) of subsection (a) of Code Section 40-6-391; or

(v) Leaves the state.

If charged with felony fleeing, then a driver could be facing up to five years in prison and even higher fines.

Practice Note

Just because the man in the story above fled the police during an arrest does not make him guilty of committing a criminal act.

However, it can be used against him as evidence of his alleged guilt to the other offenses he has been accused of committing. Everyone is to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. If you or a loved one has been arrested in the City of Atlanta, contact an Atlanta DUI Attorney as soon as possible.