Busy days and nights for Valdosta police in February

By T.S. Carter

 

VALDOSTA, Lowndes County, Georgia – Valdosta police handled 4,903 calls for service in February, making 170arrests, the policedepartment said in a report released March 11.

The more than 4,900 service calls led to the opening of 208 investigations,

In highway enforcement, police wrote 274 citations and made four DUI arrests. Additionally, the Valdosta-Lowndes Regional Crime Lab tested 372 items, police said.

One of the most high-profile incidents began with a robbery and shooting inside the Mega Mart convenience store on North Street around 3:20 p.m. on February 19. The shooter fired at a responding Valdosta police officer before fleeing to the nearby Mr. B’s IGA parking lot, where the suspect, 45-year-old Eric Jerome Tooley, fired at the exterior wall of the grocery store.

The shots penetrated the IGA’s front exterior wall, behind which were customers and store workers.

Police saythat Tooley continued to flee but took a quick timeout to rob a pedestrian at gunpoint, police said.

Tooley dropped his gun on orders an officer staged in the 600 block of East Jane Street, police said. He fled but was caught moments later.

Meanwhile, vehicle break-ins have become a growing problem in Valdosta. They became a

nearly daily occurrence since January 1, police say, and noted they responded to more than 45 vehicle burglariesNew Year’s Day.

Most troubling about the breaks-ins: Theft of 18 firearms.

In each gun theft, the owners neglected to lock their vehicles, police said.

“In nine of the 17 calls where a gun was reported stolen, the vehicles had not been locked, and owners only had serial numbers for eight of the firearms,” police noted.