On May 25, 2021, Dothan investigators were preparing to execute a search warrant at a hotel in the 2100 block of Ross Clark Circle. Before the search warrant could be executed, the suspect exited the hotel room and entered a vehicle in the parking lot. Investigators were able to block the vehicle into a parking space. Officers ordered the suspect, 38 year old Dedrick Farold Smith of Columbus, Georgia, to put his vehicle in park and get out of the vehicle. He then accelerated, rammed one of the police vehicles and fled the parking lot.
Officers pursued Smith round Ross Clark Circle to the intersection of Third Avenue where he collided with another police vehicle and again fled the scene traveling North on Third Avenue. Smith travelled to the intersection of Third Avenue and Cottonwood Road where he collided into the rear of an innocent bystander causing severe damage to both vehicles.
Both Smith and the victim from the vehicle crash were transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Dedrick Farold Smith has been taken into custody and charged with Two (2) counts of Attempted Assault 1st Degree, One (1) count of Assault 1st Degree, Drug Trafficking (Methamphetamine), Certain Persons Forbidden to Possess a Firearm, Possession of Marijuana 1st Degree, Receiving Stolen Property 2nd Degree, and Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Substance (Synthetic Marijuana). Smith also had three active warrants in Houston County Al. One Failure to Appear for Trafficking Methamphetamines’, one Failure to Appear for Possession of Marijuana 1st Degree, and a warrant for Escape 2nd Degree. No Bond had been set in this case. Additional charges are pending.