Downtown chase leads to arrest

Published 4:34 pm Friday, June 17, 2016

A 10-minute foot chase near Downtown Greenville became a literal exercise in futility for one Greenville man Thursday.

Tashaun Mack was arrested and charged with third-degree burglary, theft of property and criminal mischief after fleeing from authorities at a residence on Linda Avenue to the county building located on East Commerce Street, where he was apprehended.

Georgiana police chief David Scruggs said that Mack was wanted in connection with a burglary that occurred at a gas station in Georgiana early Thursday morning.

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“12:30 a.m. Thursday morning, officers came upon a Z-Tec gas station with its audible alarm going off,” Scruggs said. “When they pulled in the parking lot, they noticed the front glass busted out of the building. Once it was determined that nobody was in the building, we did make entry into the building and noticed that a coin machine inside of the building was busted open.  Once the key holder arrived on scene, we determined that there was a little over $100 in cash money taken out of that machine.

“We watched the [security camera] video and got to talking to some people around town, and he was identified as Tashaun Mack from Greenville.  We had a witness that also told us that he carried Mr. Mack to Greenville and dropped him off at a residence up there.”

Scruggs then notified authorities in Greenville and coordinated an effort to bring Mack in.

“During the time that we were there trying to make contact with us at the trailer park where he was supposedly last seen at, he sees us and takes off running,” Scruggs said.

Mack fled from the trailer park at Linda Avenue and broke into one of the county building’s windows on East Commerce Street, where he was promptly surrounded by authorities and arrested.

Scruggs added that, given the hectic nature of the chase, he was glad that the subject was apprehended safely.

“I’d like to thank the Greenville Police Department, the Drug Task Force, Pardon and Parole Probations and the Butler County Sheriff’s Department for assisting us in making this arrest,” Scruggs said.