Forsyth County deputies, K-9 team arrest suspected car thief after chase

Forsyth County deputies say a routine attempt to stop a vehicle matching a stolen-car report from Gwinnett County escalated into a chase, a crash and a foot pursuit that ended with the arrest of 21-year-old Isaac Davis.

Deputy Kenneth Gober tried to stop the vehicle after it was seen in Forsyth County, but the driver refused to pull over. Deputies said the car weaved through traffic and then disappeared after the driver turned off the lights, prompting them to end the pursuit for safety reasons. The vehicle was later found crashed and abandoned.

That decision reflects the balancing act local law enforcement faces during vehicle pursuits. Georgia law requires agencies that conduct vehicular pursuits to have written policies, and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office says its enforcement division has tools that help officers track suspects without turning every stop into a high-speed chase. Those resources include specialized K-9 units, traffic units, patrol deputies and a Real Time Crime Center.

The search moved from the roadway to the ground when a civilian told Deputy Matthew Pittman that someone had been seen running from the crashed vehicle. Pittman then found a man hiding in tall grass, dirty and covered in briars from moving through brush. Deputies identified him as Davis.

A wallet found between the crashed vehicle and the place where Davis was detained matched him, helping confirm deputies had found the right suspect. Deputies also said items commonly associated with robbery were found in Davis’s possession, including a loaded gun. That detail made the case more serious than a standard stolen-vehicle arrest and raised the stakes for anyone who might have crossed paths with the suspect during the chase.

The case also underscores how quickly a stolen-car call can become a broader public-safety problem in Forsyth County. What began as a traffic stop turned into a chase across local roads, a crash scene and a search in heavy brush, with the risk shifting from one driver refusing to stop to a wider danger for nearby motorists and the neighborhoods around the crash site. The arrest ended the immediate threat, but the path there showed why deputies are trained to break off a pursuit when the risk to the public starts to outweigh the need for an instant stop.