Suspect pleads guilty to assaulting cop

Monday, September 13, 2010
© Copyright 2013 Gwinnett Daily Post

LAWRENCEVILLE — A Clarkston man admitted in court Monday to charges he nearly ran over a Lilburn officer while fleeing the scene of a drug-related shooting at a local bowling alley in 2008.

Benjamin Lamar Adams pleaded guilty in Gwinnett Superior Court to one count of aggravated assault upon a police officer in the August 2008 incident. He was sentenced to serve four months followed by more than four years probation, said Assistant District Attorney Mike McDaniel.

A jury trial for Adams was scheduled to begin Monday.

Police said Adams and Stone Mountain resident Leroy Antwon Backman were involved in a botched drug deal outside Brunswick Zone on Lawrenceville Highway.

Adams drove the getaway car after Backman allegedly shot a victim inside the vehicle. Charges against Backman were later dropped, court records show.

Adams nearly ran over a Lilburn police detective near the intersection of Lawrenceville Highway and Beaver Ruin Road as the officer tried to block the intersection, McDaniel said.

Adams crashed the Chevy Impala into a concrete median about a half-mile down the road before being caught after a brief foot chase.

The officer was not injured, McDaniel said. The shooting victim was hospitalized with injuries that weren’t life-threatening, police said at the time.

McDaniel said there was no evidence that Adams tried to harm the officer while fleeing the scene.

“If there was a clear intent there, that would be something entirely different, and (Adams) may be looking at a whole lot of prison time,” he said.

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