GILES COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) – Surveillance footage detailed the turn of events that lead to a carjacking which ended in a deadly crash in Giles County.
Just before 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, a black Mercedes pulled into a Shell gas station on Lewisburg Highway; 20-year-old Ashtin Geiger from Indiana was behind the wheel, driving a car that Metro police said he stole from a women at gunpoint less than an hour earlier in South Nashville.
“He’s pulling up in the Mercedes he stole off Murfreesboro Pike,” officials with the Giles County Sheriff’s Department pointed out in the video.
They explained that Geiger pulled up and turned off the car, not realizing he didn’t have the fob to restart it, so he was left stranded. Some 40 minutes later, investigators said Geiger approached the woman at the pump with a gun, demanded her keys and threatened to shoot her.
Video shows the woman throwing her keys and running off, screaming for help, and the suspect nearly hitting her on the way out.
Geiger made his way to Pulaski, where officials said less than 30 minutes later, the crime spree came to a deadly conclusion.
“Right in the middle of Pulaski; this is right in the middle of Pulaski,” said Lemmie Nelson, who lives in the small community.
Officials with the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) said Geiger ran a red light, plowing into two cars. The crash killed Geiger and 83-year-old Charles Jenkins of Giles County.
“It’s just such a tragic accident. Both lives were lost and potentially a third life could have been lost; the guy that was on the Silverado truck, thankfully he wasn’t hurt,” Nelson said.
The turn of events left the tight knit community saddened.
“It’s a senseless crime. If he got a car, stolen car, just take off running, running traffic lights and running up killing innocence people,” said William Redus who lived near Jenkins.
Nelson said she is praying for Jenkins’s family.
“They are local people. We care about people here in Giles County and our prayers are with the family,” she said.
Investigators with the Giles County Sheriff’s Department said they were not pursuing Geiger’s car when it crashed.
Metro police said they briefly pursued Geiger following the South Nashville carjacking, but he fled, making his way toward Giles County.
