Cherokee Man Injures Person, Endangers Child After Store Payments Fail

HOLLY SPRINGS, GA — A 27-year-old man is in jail after police say he injured others and endangered a 4-year-old child after his payments at a Holly Springs Parkway retail store did not work.

Officers responded around 3:30 p.m. Sunday to the store, where they say Deonte Stodghill became "irate and combative" toward the workers when his payments failed at the store. Stodghill was with the child at the time, Holly Springs Police said Monday.

He left the store with the child, got into his vehicle and sped through the parking lot, police said.

While doing so, he was accused of losing control of the vehicle, hitting a shopping cart and causing it to hit the person pushing the cart. Police said the person suffered abrasions and contusions from the impact.

As Stodghill continued through the parking lot, he was accused of hitting another vehicle before leaving the store parking lot and heading onto Holly Springs Parkway southbound.

He was then accused of speeding south on Holly Springs, once again losing control of his vehicle near Adam Jenkins Memorial Drive and causing it to leave the roadway and into a ravine. The vehicle landed against a concrete sewer, police said.

"Stodghill exited the vehicle, grabbed the child and ran across Holly Springs Parkway into the wood line," police said in a news release.

Holly Springs Police, alongside the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia State Patrol, set up a perimeter. GSP assisted with a helicopter, along with the sheriff's office's K9 officers. Holly Springs used a drone to try to locate Stodghill and the child.

Police said the child was found near the Pinecrest Road railroad tracks. Officers transported the child for medical observation, police said. The child suffered minor abrasions and was eventually turned over to the mother.

Stodghill was found around 6 p.m. in the woods, police said. He was taken to the Cherokee Northside Hospital for injuries; and upon release, he was taken to the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center, police said.

According to jail records, Stodghill was charged on suspicion of reckless driving, endangering a child by driving under the influence, theft by receiving stolen property, abandonment of dependent child, DUI-less safe, hit and run resulting in serious injury, possession of marijuana less than an ounce, weaving over roadway, striking fixed object, no seat belt, child passenger restraining systems, attempting to elude police and serious injury by vehicle and leaves scene. He is being held on a $24,107 bond.