Rome man wanted in Calhoun after high speed chase
♦ Police say Cornelius Banks fled a traffic stop in a rented Kia.
The Calhoun Police Department took out warrants for multiple charges alleging a Rome man fled from a traffic stop and then disappeared with a backpack after ditching a rental car.
According to CPD records, warrants have been filed for the arrest of Cornelius Banks, 38, of Rome.
Banks is facing charges of improper right turn, failure to maintain lane, speeding, reckless driving, failure to use turn signal, driving on the wrong side of the road, driving through a gore, striking a fixed object, fleeing and attempting to elude, obstruction of an officer, failure to obey a traffic control device, open container, possession of dangerous drugs and drugs not kept in original container.
Police say Banks fled a traffic stop at speeds in excess of 100 mph, broke several traffic laws while driving into oncoming traffic, and then ditched the rental car he was driving before fleeing on foot with a backpack, leaving an open beer and a bag of erectile dysfunction medication behind.
The event began at about 7:20 p.m. on Monday when an officer pulled over Banks in a rented Kia Optima on the Interstate 75 on-ramp at Red Bud Road for making an illegal turn. The officer could smell marijuana inside the vehicle and observed an open container of beer on the floorboard of the passenger side.
The officer asked Banks to exit the vehicle, but he refused. A passenger did get out of the car and agreed to a search of his person. He told the officer he had about $1,800 cash.
The officer then approached Banks again and asked him to take off his seatbelt but Banks drove away onto I-75 South. Police gave chase and Banks drove off the interstate at Ga. 53, at one point losing control of the car and striking, then crossing, the raised median. He continued driving east on Ga. 53 into oncoming traffic.
The officer temporarily lost sight of the vehicle while turning around, then found it at the Redroof Motel on Jameson Street. Witnesses pointed the officer toward the back of the motel, and he and his K-9 partner tracked Banks for about half a mile but did not find him. Other officers and Georgia State Patrol troopers also joined in the search.
Back at the vehicle, witnesses told officers Banks had run off with a backpack. Inside the car, the officer found an open beer and a clear plastic baggie with six blue pills labeled “SC 100,” believed to be Sildenafil, which is an erectile dysfunction medication.
The passenger told police he did not know why Banks ran and that the beer and pills belonged to Banks. He was released. Warrants were taken out for Banks.