Athens-Clarke County police said they made two arrests early Monday in connection with a brief car chase in which one of the offenders got out of the vehicle and ran.
An officer was on patrol at about 12:50 a.m. in the vicinity of Hawthorne and Oglethorpe avenues where he tried conducting a traffic stop on a car because a computer indicted the driver was unlicensed, according to police. The car continued traveling on Hawthorne, with its driver ignoring the police car behind her vehicle. When the car finally stopped at the Family Dollar store a passenger got out and ran across the street, going behind a building where he fell down a hill and was captured, police said.
The officer who chased 25-year-old Christopher Lee Porterfield saw the man toss items while running, and when retracing the path of the foot chase, police said they found a bag of meth and a scale.
Porterfield was charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of a drug-related object and obstruction.
The car’s driver, 29-year-old Tiffany L. Strickland of Walker Drive was charged with fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, driving without a license and operating an uninsured vehicle.
Authorities in Oglethorpe and Madison counties placed holds on Porterfield’s released in connection with unspecified offenses in their jurisdictions.