BAD FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED CHASE 2008
Randolph County Sheriff's Deputy Donnie Grant Jr., 33, severely injured by a suspect Oct. 14, is recovering at Atlanta Medical Center and may be released as soon as Thursday, according to Sheriff's Investigator Jimmy Holmes.Grant has several broken bones and is in a lot of pain, said Investigator Donnie Strain, whose uncle is married to Grant's aunt. "We've known each other all our lives. It's always terrible when it happens to someone you know," he said.Grant was responding to a call on County Road 434 near Butler's Mill in Graham around noon last week when he saw and stopped the gold GMC Yukon, driven by a man who had been in a domestic dispute with a female. Grant was subsequently run over and dragged 100 to 150 feet, sustaining severe injuries. His desperate call went out to law enforcement, who quickly responded from all over the area.One of those rushing to the scene was his father, Roanoke Police Capt. Donnie Grant Sr., who has worked in law enforcement for 35 years, according to Police Chief Adam Melton.Melton sent three units to the area and drove to Woodland to pick up Grant's family members to get them to the LifeFlight helicopter before it left. He had also dispatched two units to Wedowee to cover the town and the sheriff's department while officers from those departments were tracking the suspect.The quick wits and work of E-911 personnel helped track John Simons of Rockmart, Ga., better than a bloodhound. Randolph County 911 director Lisa Reed said they feel very strongly about taking care of their officers when they are out in the field."We had received several calls from the female person involved. She told us the vehicle had OnStar. She thought it could disable the vehicle but it couldn't," Reed said. However, through a number of calls, with OnStar calling back to make sure it really was a 911 center, they explained officers were in pursuit of a vehicle with the GPS OnStar system. OnStar personnel wanted the vehicle identification number of the 2004 GMC Yukon that belonged to the female victim's father, but that information was in the vehicle. Then, they called the insurance company who had that information and would not normally release it, but in this incident everyone was working together.They advised Cleburne County of the chase and the vehicle and then the suspect got into Haralson County, Ga. They were still tracing him by the OnStar network and relaying instructions to those on the ground looking for him, Reed said. In this far-reaching search the Alabama State Troopers notified Georgia State Troopers, Reed said."We just remained on line with GMC. I'm not sure what they saw but I assume a dot on a map. She (OnStar personnel) would say he is coming up on so and so intersection. At one point he stopped for about five minutes. She didn't know why he was stopped but that he was stopped. She would then say he is turning north or east or reaching a certain intersection. At one point she said he was stopped and the airbags deployed. We didn't know he'd crashed and gotten out shooting or he'd shot himself near the railroad tracks," Reed said.Simons died at the hospital after being transported there.The center has been involved with OnStar before when there have been accidents but nothing like this, she said. They have never tracked anyone by the vehicle's GPS. If the caller had not mentioned it they would not have known, she said."Our dispatchers were quick thinking and said 'let's call OnStar and see if they can help.' We were very thankful we could get in touch with them and they could track him. We wanted to get him so he could take responsibility for what he had done," Reed said."Our deputies we take pride in and they are important to us," she said. She and the operations manager heard the radio traffic and joined the two dispatchers on duty, whom she referred to as Operators 108 and 112.During all this four other 911 calls came in so they were busy, she said."They just went into robot mode and kept 100 balls running all at one time. I'm just glad it turned out as well as it did. I've known Donnie a long time. We weren't in the same class but we were in the same school. He is a very nice guy and a very hard-working young man. It was very hard to hear him and the shape he was in," she said.She has been so impressed with how the entire community stepped up that day to get him to the helicopter and continued to support him and his family. Station 12 Woodland Fire Department, while responding to the helicopter site, also had to handle a car accident. It is required to have a fire vehicle at the helicopter's landing site for safety reasons.Of her staff, who did not want to be named, she said: "They did a wonderful job. They kept their cool and did everything that needed to be done."They have two administrative lines and at one time both those lines and three personal cell phones were in use to handle the situation."It was pretty crazy in here. The dispatchers did a wonderful job. They had a job to do and they did it as best as I could ever hope for," she said.They handled two calls from Cleburne County and then one from Jerry's Fireworks at the intersection of 48 and 87 where another altercation took place.Dispatchers are highly trained in medical response, as well as fire and police response. That are not allowed to take any calls until that intense training is complete, she said.While Grant is not married, evidently he has a family in law enforcement, according to the many comments. Grant had worked with the Roanoke Police Department for three years, briefly with CSX Railroad and the sheriff's department about 10 years.Strain said the Randolph County Fire Association and others are taking up money for the Grant family.Deputy Mark Windsor was the last really bad incident for the sheriff's department. Windsor was killed by a drunk driver in the mid 1990s when he was on patrol, Strain said. A Marine had left a party when he struck Windsor's vehicle on County Road 51, just below Woodland.Sheriff's Investigator Greg Dendinger said the local volunteer fire departments who have participated in raising money for Grant are: Rock Stand, Corinth, A&M, Forrester's Crossroads and the Randolph County Reserves.They raised about $8,700 and the fundraising is ongoing, he said, with different organizations and churches planning events to cover Grant's medical expenses, such as the Abanda Baptist Church benefit singing Nov. 8.Melton had a flyer advertising a Nov. 22 benefit motorcycle ride for medical expenses for Grant. It is sponsored by friends, fellow police officers and Advance Auto Parts. Registration will be from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. and the cost is $20 per bike and $15 for an additional rider. The ride is from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. starting and finishing at Advance Auto Parts on U.S. Highway 431. John and Robin Williams are the contacts at 863-8063, 404-889-7890 or 404-889-7892.Holmes said: "We're doing it because we love him. Folks in the county have been real generous. It makes us feel good that people out there come together in our time of need."The money being raised and deposited in Grant's bank account will help with house and vehicle payments, he said."I think they are going to let him come home Thursday. His pelvis is fractured in two places and if it is healing good they said they might let him come home," Holmes said. When he and Sheriff Jeff Fuller went up to visit him last Thursday they were preparing to move him into a regular room, he said.