KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — A man is in custody after a deputy suffered serious injuries during a high-speed chase that began at a car dealership off Interstate 40 and Pellissippi Parkway in West Knox County.
The chase ended with the suspect breaking into a woman's home and dumping a backpack full of marijuana in her closet, according to the Knox County Sheriff's Office.
According to the arrest report, a deputy saw a Jeep speed out of the Kia dealership at 9929 Parkside Drive on Monday around 7 p.m. The deputy turned on their sirens and tried to pull the Jeep over, but said it began evading them.
The Jeep turned onto Cedar Bluff Road and blew through red lights without "any regard for other drivers on the roadway." The Knox County Sheriff's Office said the driver then turned onto Old Cedar Bluff Road and turned off all of its lights before taking a right onto Middlebrook Pike.
Deputies said the chase reached speeds upward of 80 to 90 mph. After a series of turns, it eventually turned onto McKamey Road and the deputy lost sight of it.
Two other deputies passed the vehicle on McKamey Road and tried to stop it. It was at this point that one of the deputies, identified as Officer Brown, crashed their patrol vehicle.
Deputies called off the pursuit to help Brown. They were extracted from the vehicle and taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with serious injuries, including broken ribs, vertebrae and a broken collarbone.
An Air Watch helicopter was able to find the Jeep and followed it to Chinkapin Lane in West Knoxville. After helping Brown, one of the deputies responded to the address and knocked on the door.
The deputy said a woman came to the door in a panic and told them that "he" was inside. The woman said she did not know who the person was and that he had busted through the back door.
The deputy said they then spotted the man, identified as Marcus Johnson, Jr., running deeper into the home. The deputy kicked a door open and found Johnson upstairs in the hallway as he was trying to leave the woman's bedroom. The deputy told Johnson to get on the ground but said Johnson "resisted arrest." He was eventually taken into custody.
After clearing the home, the deputy got consent from the woman to search the home for any evidence Johnson left behind. The woman said the suspect had a backpack with him initially, and the deputy found a backpack in a bedroom closet.
Inside the backpack: more than a pound of marijuana in 52 baggies and some more in jars.
The deputy found keys to the Jeep tossed in a living room chair. In the kitchen where the back door was, they found some shoes and a jacket. They also found $211 and a purple iPhone belonging to the man on the woman's bed.
Forensic teams arrived to process the scene, and deputies later learned the Jeep was stolen. Inside the Jeep: $1,000 and another eight baggies of marijuana.
"In my experience with the amount of marijuana and packaging it is more than probable than not that the cash was proceeds from the sale of marijuana," the deputy said in the arrest report.
Deputies said Johnson is facing several charges, including evading arrest/serious bodily injury of law enforcement, attempted tampering with evidence, theft of property between $10,000 -$60,000, possession of unlawful drug paraphernalia, felony possession of schedule VI drugs (marijuana), and aggravated burglary.