Driver facing charges in Belton chase that ended in wreck

0
2088

Three people were injured when the vehicle they were in struck a tree and overturned on Rogers Road Sunday afternoon. Belton police officers had been pursuing the vehicle before it crashed.
According to the Belton Police Department, the incident began at 1 p.m. on Sunday, officers with the Belton Police Department attempted to initiate a traffic stop on a dark green Jeep Cherokee for an improper tag violation. The tag displayed on the vehicle was registered to a Cadillac. It was officers thoughts the vehicle was stolen. After the activation of emergency blue lights, the vehicle accelerated in speed and attempted to elude officers on a chase that spanned two counties with speeds in excess of 80 MPH.

The chase began in Belton and went out Hwy 247 to Hwy 25 in Greenville County. It eventually went through Piedmont on Hwy 86. When officers came upon congested traffic they used their due regard for the public’s safety and terminated the vehicle pursuit.

A short time later they were notified that the vehicle they had been pursuing had crashed in the 500 block of Rogers Road just off Highway 8. Officers responded to the scene along with Anderson County Sheriffs Office, SC Highway Patrol, and multiple Fire and EMS services.

According to a Belton PD news release, multiple times throughout the chase the backseat female passenger attempted to get out of the vehicle when in slow motion and had her hands out the window and up. We did not know at the time if we had a kidnapping situation.
The driver, Jonathan Josey Carter, 26, was identified was found in possession of 32g of a crystal like substance that field test positive as Methamphetamine, 3g of marijuana, and two handguns, one .40 Smith & Wesson, one a 9mm with a round in the chamber.
According to the Belton PD, Carter is prohibited from possessing firearms and has multiple distribution, manufacturing, and possession charges. He was also involved in a chase with ACSO in August according to his criminal history.
Carter is facing charges of possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, trafficking methamphetamine, failure to stop for blue lights, and other traffic offenses.
Two passengers in the vehicle, Michael John Thomason, 42 and Hannah Cronic, 27, have no charges at this time.

Carter was admitted at Greenville Memorial Hospital with non life threatening head injury for 12-24 hour routine observation.