Mississippi man identified who stole Chattanooga police car and later turned gun on himself

Monday, August 19, 2013

photo An attempted robbery on Brainerd Road evolved into a police chase with a stolen squad car Saturday night, leaving one suspect in police custody and another dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A Gulfport, Miss., man who turned a gun on himself after taking a Chattanooga Police Department patrol car over the weekend has been identified as 37-year-old Antonio Sheffield, according to Georgia authorities.

Sheffield, who was a federally convicted felon, is suspected of attempting to rob a Brainerd business, Tiffany Nails, 5509 Brainerd Road, on Saturday night. He was located by police an hour after the robbery at CVS Pharmacy on Brainerd Road.

Police had detained 46-year-old Darryl Roberts in the back of a patrol car. Police made contact with a second suspect, Sheffield, at the Economy Inn, 5505 Brainerd Road. He opened fired on officers.

Police fired back. Sheffield fled around the building before pistol whipping an officer and stealing the patrol car that Roberts was in.

Sheffield sped away in the stolen patrol car across the state line to Georgia. The vehicle crashed.

"A short time after, his vehicle came to a stop," said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Greg Ramey. "I think officers were nearby or present."

Georgia State Patrol and Whitfield County Sheriff's Department were able to stop the vehicle on North Dug Gap Road, according to police.

Roberts was uninjured. Court records show police have not charged him in connection to the robbery attempt.

Shortly after the crash, Sheffield turned a handgun on himself and pulled the trigger, said Whitfield County Coroner Bobbie Dixon.

"It was a suicide," she said.

GBI is investigating Sheffield's death.

Sheffield was sentenced in 2001 to 116 months for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, crack cocaine, and felony possession of a firearm in 2001. He appealed and his sentence was reduced to 99 months and three days. He was released in March 2008 from a medium security facility in Yazoo City, Miss. He was placed on five-year supervision period.