Cops: Man arrested in Hempstead on Ga. warrant

A 28-year-old Georgia man, wanted on a series of warrants that include ramming a police car during a chase through a rural Georgia town, was arrested Friday at a home where he was staying in Hempstead, police said.

John Jones, of Richland, Ga., was arrested by officers from the Nassau County police Fugitive Section and the U.S. Marshals New York-New Jersey Regional Task Force at a home on James LL Burrell Avenue at 6:45 a.m. He was charged with being a fugitive from justice and now faces arraignment Friday in First District Court in Hempstead. Jones also faces eventual extradition to Georgia, Nassau police said.

The warrants, issued in Stewart County, Ga., include assault on a police officer, eluding a police officer, burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary.

Chief Robbie Wells of the Richland City Police Department told Newsday the warrants are the result of multiple run-ins with police in the town of about 1,800 best-known for being the home of Bessie Lillian Gordy Carter, mother of the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter.

"We're gonna do whatever we gotta do to get him [Jones] back here," Wells said, "because I want him bad."

Wells said the initial warrants against Jones stem from a burglary in 2011, adding: "He's been eluding us ever since then." Wells said the additional warrants involve a run-in with Richland City officers in August, when he said Jones led an officer on a chase through town at 100 mph, rammed a police cruiser, drove his own car into a ditch twice -- and then fled the scene on foot.

"When he came back, we tried to get him stopped in a vehicle," Wells said. Jones "started eluding the officer, went through town at 100 mph, then turned into a dead end, hit a fence," Wells said.

After an additional chase, Wells said, Jones fled. When an investigation revealed Jones might be on Long Island, Wells said he "called in a favor" to the U.S. Marshals.

"I'm one of those guys you put it in my face, I'm gonna come after you like a bulldog," Wells said. "That's how I am."