Police Release Report of Fatal Accident Involving Decatur Burglary Suspect

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By Kristal Dixon

The Georgia State Patrol has released the report detailing Tuesday’s accident in which a burglary suspect from Decatur died following a police chase in Roswell.

Anthony Tremayne Stokes, 17, was killed March 31 when a vehicle he was driving hit a metal pole after striking a pedestrian and another vehicle along S.R. 9/Alpharetta Highway at Hembree Road around 3:35 p.m.

According to an incident report released by the state agency, Stokes was traveling northbound on Alpharetta Highway/S.R. 9 in a black 1996 Honda Accord when he “swerved to avoid the stop sticks deployed by (the) Roswell Police Department and started to lose control.”

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The vehicle traveled through the center turn lane and into oncoming traffic. Stokes overcorrected the Accord and rotated clockwise through the intersection of Alpharetta Highway and Hembree Road, according to the trooper’s narrative.

While traveling through the intersection, the Accord’s front bumper hit the passenger side front bumper of a 2008 gold Chevrolet Impala. The Impala was traveling westbound on Hembree Road and waiting for the traffic signal to change.

After impact, the Accord continued northeast sideways and struck Clementina Hernandez, 33, of Roswell, who was standing on a concrete median in the roadway waiting to cross the road, according to the report.

“The impact sent the pedestrian airborne over the hood” of the Accord, the trooper writes.

When Stokes struck Hernandez, the vehicle also hit the street’s crosswalk signals and then “traveled into the grass before hitting a Suntrust Bank sign with its drivers side and coming to an uncontrolled stop,” the report states.

Hernandez suffered “non-fatal” injuries to her lower extremities and was transported to North Fulton Hospital.

According to the report, Stokes was trapped inside the vehicle and had to be extricated from the Accord. The report notes he was transported to North Fulton Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The driver of the Impala, Marjorie Ann Boley, 66, of Roswell, suffered no injuries.

Roswell police spokesperson Lisa Holland said the vehicle Stokes was driving was believed to have been connected to a burglary call at a home on Alpine Drive earlier that day.

Holland said a person “kicked in the door to a house” as the homeowner watched television. The homeowner ”believed she heard a gunshot and ran into her bedroom and called 911, Holland stated.

The suspect fled the scene in a black vehicle, which officers later spotted while on patrol. The vehicle’s tag information was processed, and Holland stated the car came back as reportedly stolen from Dunwoody.

Officers tried to initiate a traffic stop, but Stokes fled in the vehicle, Holland said.

Details on Stokes’ life came to light when it was revealed he was the recipient of a heart transplant. That’s according to WSB-TV, which initially reported on the teen and his family’s campaign to get doctors to perform the live-saving procedure.

Stokes, who was 15 at the time of the report, was initially denied the medical procedure by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta due to “ a history of non-compliance,” the news station reported at the time.

Stokes told WSB’s Jovita Moore he wanted the transplant so he could get a “second chance and do things I want to do.”