Glenn Heights police ID burglary suspect

by Daphne Brown of DeSoto TODAY

One day after a high-speed chase left him incapacitated, a Glenn Heights burglary suspect is in police custody.

Glenn Heights police have identified a Houston man in the early-morning Jan. 7 break-in of the Whistle Stop convenience store Glenn Heights. Police had originally declined to identify the man until he was out of the hospital and charged.

Glenn Heights Police Chief Phillip Prasifka said 24-year-old Hosea Atkinson is charged with two third-degree felonies for evading arrest and burglary of a building. If convicted, each charge carries a fine of up to $10,000 and confinement in a state jail between two and 10 years, Prasifka said. The total bond amount is $15,000.

Police received a call about the possible break-in at 3:57 a.m.

A police officer followed a white Dodge Ram pickup from the location, in the 100 block of Ovilla Road, onto Hampton Road. The driver refused to stop once the officer turned on emergency lights and sirens.

Prasifka said the chase continued northbound on Hampton Road, and then entered the city of DeSoto, where a DeSoto officer joined in. The vehicle disregarded several red lights along the way and reached extremely high rates of speed. The pursuit then entered the city of Dallas, still on Hampton Road. The suspect turned east on Camp Wisdom Road, where he was traveling in the wrong lanes. Prasifka said after several blocks, the driver went back into the correct eastbound lane, before eventually turning south into a residential neighborhood off of Woodwick Road. The vehicle traveled within the neighborhood before wrecking in front of a home in the 400 block of Bluewood Drive.

“The driver, who apparently was attempting to bail out of the vehicle, ended up pinned underneath the driver's side front tire,” the chief said. “The male was taken into custody, but was transported by the Dallas Fire Department ambulance to Parkland Memorial Hospital where he was admitted for non-life threatening injuries from the accident.”

A safe was recovered at the location of the accident that had been taken from the convenience store, which received structural damage from the burglary police investigators said.

Jan. 8, Atkinson was discharged from Parkland and transported to the Glenn Heights City Jail where he was booked. He was given the magistrate's warning for the two charges.

Atkinson is being transported to the Ellis County Jail where he will be booked while awaiting bond.

Prasifka said the case remains under investigation of the Glenn Heights Police Department