Love triangle ends in arrest

The incident began on June 29, with Statham Police chasing a runaway man in a stolen Ford Mustang. The chase ended when the criminal was found in the Target shopping center parking lot in Bethlehem the following day.

Police report the driver of the car, Matthew Chambers, of 2281 Atlanta Hwy SE, Statham, was discovered by the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office on June 30, arrested, and taken to jail.

Chambers is charged with theft by taking a motor vehicle, aggravated assault, battery, seat belt violation, fleeing and attempting to elude, kidnapping, false imprisonment, reckless driving and driving on a suspended driver's license.

At about 2:30 a.m. on June 29, an officer on patrol on Atlanta Highway in Statham saw a white Ford Mustang approach him headed westbound with its headlamps flashing and horn honking, according to reports.

From his open driver’s side window, the officer could hear screaming, and saw a person on top of the vehicle.

The officer called for backup in order to stop the car. A second police officer pulled the driver of the Mustang over in the Waffle House parking lot in Statham.

When the reporting officer arrived, he heard tires squealing and yelling as he entered the parking lot, and then noticed the suspect trying to leave the parking lot.

He also noticed a white female standing in the parking lot waving her arms.

The officer drove into the parking lot and the white Mustang, driven by a white male, sped off, almost striking the officer’s patrol car heading toward Athens on Atlanta Highway, reports state.

The assisting officer followed the fleeing man in the Mustang, and the reporting officer remained in the Waffle House parking lot, and got out of his patrol car after he saw another white male run toward the Waffle House. When the officer yelled at the man to stop running, the man turned around and stuck his right hand in the front of his pants, according to reports.

The officer reportedly drew his weapon and commanded the man to show his hands.

The man eventually complied, raising two empty hands, reports state.

The female ran toward the officer, the reports state, and the officer asked her twice to stay back. The female told the officer that the male had recently had a heart attack and was in pain. The officer called an ambulance and told the man to sit down and concentrate on his breathing.
The officer tended to the man until medical assistance arrived and was able to learn from the woman that she was married to the man with the heart condition. They were recently separated and during the separation, she began “talking” to Chambers, the reports state.

She’d known Chambers for four days, according to reports, and she told police Chambers had assaulted she and her husband in Gwinnett County, an incident that was handled by police in Lawrenceville.

Lawrenceville police reportedly told the woman and her husband to take Chambers home to his residence in Barrow County, where he “lost control,” assaulting her again, reports state.

“If I can’t have you, then I’ll kill him,” Chambers reportedly told the woman. When she tried to leave in the Mustang, which officers would later learn belonged to her husband, Chambers jumped on the back of the car. The woman fled with Chambers still on the top of the car and her husband inside, reports state.

The woman was looking for a place to pull over, but all of the businesses were closed. Knowing the Waffle House would be open all night, the woman said she drove there. As she tried to get out of the car, Chambers slid from off the top of the Mustang into the driver’s seat, where he would eventually take off, with the woman’s husband still in the backseat, where he had apparently been the whole time. The woman’s husband tried to climb out of the passenger side window, but Chambers sped off.

The woman reportedly feared for her husband’s life.

The woman’s husband told police that every time he tried to make an exit from the vehicle, Chambers would speed up. When he finally managed to jump out through the passenger side window, Chambers tried to run him over, the man told police, and in doing so, ran over his ankle. That was when he ran away from the Mustang toward the Waffle House, the man told police.

A witness at the scene filled out a voluntary statement. The wedded couple said they would fill out statements when they weren’t so “shook up.”