Gary Lane Mitchell

CHATSWORTH, Ga. — A Chatsworth man who side-swiped a deputy’s patrol car and crashed into a telephone pole was arrested Sunday morning after he was originally part of a domestic dispute.

Gary Lane Mitchell was arrested wearing just a shirt, screaming obscenities, speaking incoherently and displaying behavior “similar to an individual who I would recognize to being on some type of narcotics,” according to a Murray County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

Mitchell, 59, of 170 Weaver Drive, was charged Sunday by the Murray County Sheriff’s Office with aggravated assault, felony interference with government property, simple assault, criminal damage to property, DUI (less safe), disorderly conduct and several traffic violations. According to the report, the collision “destroyed” the patrol car.

The incident began around 6 a.m. on Sunday after Mitchell came to his son’s house to do laundry. Mitchell’s son confronted him after Mitchell was discovered performing a sexual act on himself while sitting on a couch with a juvenile asleep next to him. The report said an adult woman was in the room but had her back to Mitchell. After Mitchell was discovered, Mitchell’s son told deputies he “grabbed his father by the shoulders” and took him into the kitchen where he demanded he leave. He said Mitchell cussed at him and tried to punch him, and the son punched him in the ear to defend himself.

Mitchell left the house in just his shirt, and the son said he thought Mitchell had gotten into his car and driven off. However, he started hearing “a loud booming” from outside and saw his father ramming his vehicle with his Chevy Blazer, pushing it 10 feet from where it was parked. Mitchell also rammed into a Hyundai Elantra on the property, which belonged to him. The responding deputy put out a call for other units to be on the lookout for Mitchell.

Responding deputies found Mitchell on Weaver Drive “sitting crossways in the road squealing its tires with no lights on.” Mitchell then began driving toward the two deputies “at a high rate of speed.” One of the deputies got out of Mitchell’s way, but the other “was unable to clear the road.” The report said Mitchell hit the deputy’s car with the Blazer, causing the passenger door to come loose and removing the outer layer as well as breaking the rear axle. The Blazer then went up the hill and hit a telephone pole about 100 feet away.

Mitchell got out of the car — still wearing only a shirt — after deputies gave him “loud verbal commands” and noted he was bleeding from his wrist and his left ear. The report said Mitchell was also “screaming vulgarities with other words I could not make out” and was “salivating and could not lie still.”

“We were lucky, and in my mind, it couldn’t have ended any better,” said Chief Deputy Jimmy Davenport. “I’ll trade a vehicle rather than have someone seriously injured. Watching the dashcam videos, I was so proud of our deputies for handling the situation and being so professional. If he had made it to the highway, I don’t know what would have happened. If was definitely a strange way to start a Sunday morning.”

Davenport said neither of the deputies at the scene suffered any serious injuries and that Cpl. Jeff Newport had “very minor injuries from debris flying through the vehicle” after Mitchell hit the vehicle. Davenport said the vehicle was a 2018 Ford Taurus recently bought by the department and had fewer than 5,000 miles.

While in an ambulance, Mitchell “continued to act wild by screaming words we could not make out and thrashing about on the stretcher.” He told a member of the ambulance crew that he had killed his wife and wanted them to kill him as well. Davenport said deputies contacted Mitchell’s wife and she was unharmed.

A deputy followed the ambulance to the hospital due to Mitchell’s “wild behavior.”

While at the hospital, Mitchell was restrained and held down by deputies and medical personnel until he was given Ativan, which is used to treat anxiety, to calm him down. After being treated at the hospital, Mitchell was booked into the Murray County jail and remains in custody without bond. According to arrest reports, Mitchell was arrested on a DUI charge in May 2013 and was charged in June 2010 by the Eton Police Department on drug charges, including manufacture of meth.