TIFTON — A 33-year-old Lakeland man is in custody here, charged with the Friday morning robbery of First Community Bank on Second Street after a Cook County law enforcement agent spotted his car on I-75 and made the arrest. Tift County High School was also evacuated after someone made an E-911 call shortly before the robbery stating that weapons were in the school.

According to Lt. Porter Jackson of the Tifton Police Department, Imad Atta Sihwail, 33, of Lakeland is being held in the Tift County jail.

Jackson said officers responded to the bank’s robbery alarm shortly after 9 a.m. Friday. Once officers were there, they were able to get a description of the suspect’s getaway vehicle and a Be On the Look Out went out to all area law enforcement agencies. Jackson said that Sgt. Larry Singletary of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office heard about the incident and spotted the suspect’s vehicle on I-75.

Jackson said detectives viewed the bank’s surveillance video of the incident.

“He told the clerk, ‘Give me your money. I have a gun,’” Jackson said. “No one witnessed a weapon.”

Singletary said Friday afternoon that once he received word of the Tifton bank robbery and that the suspect reportedly was traveling on I-75, he traveled to I-75 north at exit 37. He said he observed a gold Kia matching the description of the suspect’s make an abrupt lane change. He then contacted an Adel Police Department unit posted at exit 39 and told him the Kia was traveling south on I-75.

Singletary said the Adel officer didn’t see the Kia because traffic blocked his view but that he turned around at exit 41 and followed the Kia southbound. He was able to catch up with the Kia in the area of exit 34. As Singletary approached the vehicle, it made another lane change to the other side of I-75 behind a semi. Having probable cause to stop the vehicle for speeding and making an improper lane change, Singletary said, he initiated a traffic stop just inside Lowndes County near exit 32.

The driver of the Kia preceded to exit 41, Singletary said, and then pulled over.

“I remained behind the driver’s door of my vehicle with my weapon drawn for safety reasons,” Singletary said. “I ordered the man out of his vehicle using the PA system four times.”

The man didn’t comply with his commands, Singletary said, and then sped away in the Kia. Singletary said he informed dispatch that he was in a chase and to notify the Georgia State Patrol and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office of the situation. Singletary said in the 10 miles between exits 39 and 29, he and the Kia reached speeds of 130 mph.

Singletary said the driver of the Kia then left I-75 by way of exit 29. A semi was also exiting on the ramp and Singletary estimated the Kia was traveling 90 mph up the ramp. He said the driver of the Kia wasn’t paying attention and had to abruptly steer the Kia to the left to avoid hitting the semi. In the process, Singletary said, he lost control of the Kia and crashed into the right side of the exit ramp, taking out several highway signs.

Singletary said the suspect then exited the vehicle; two unidentified men who were at a nearby gas station began jogging toward the wreck and the suspect yelled obscenities at them and told them he had a gun. The suspect then ran west, according to Singletary, into the rear parking lot of the Big Foot Travel Center at Morven Road and Highway 122. Singletary followed him in his patrol unit before exiting and beginning to chase the suspect on foot.

“I chased him into a wooded area behind the truck stop where I took him into custody,” Singletary said.

Singletary said that he neither recovered a weapon nor ever saw one. He then called a trooper to work the accident and notified Tifton police that the suspect was in custody. He said detectives with the TPD traveled to Lowndes County, processed the vehicle for evidence and questioned the suspect, who was turned over to Tift County and transferred to the jail here.

Singletary said that Sihwail faces multiple traffic charges from Cook County.

Officials involved in the investigation have indicated an anonymous call to E-911 at approximately 9 a.m. that “weapons and a pipe” were at Tift County High School was possibly linked to the bank robbery, but they haven’t confirmed it.

Tifton police officers and Tift County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the high school en masse after the anonymous call. According to an officer on the scene, three police officers and deputies were assigned to each hall and students were told to stay in their classrooms. Smith said the officers first addressed the immediate threat of a weapon and locked down the school, deciding not to evacuate and have a large number of students gathered outside. Smith said officers searched and made sure there were no weapon threats in the building and then gave instructions to administrators to evacuate the school. Students were notified of the evacuation at approximately 10:30 a.m.

Smith said that the building was evacuated using the same procedure as a fire drill. Students who had cars on campus were allowed to leave. Parents of students picked their children up in the area of the school’s gym. Students who rode a bus to school and didn’t have a ride home earlier were instructed to stay at the school for bus pick-up at the normal time Friday afternoon.

Robby Dasher, the school system’s director of operations, said later Friday that no weapons were confiscated during a search of the school. He said the initial call that resource officers at the school received from an E-911 dispatcher was that there was a weapon or weapons in the school.

“They did a search and sweep for the weapon and then the decision was made to take children out of the building to look for any items or devices,” Dasher said.

The students who rode buses were kept on campus in a location that had been walked over and searched and cleared by law enforcement, Dasher said. He said that getting school buses to the school early and confirming that parents of those students were home was not possible.

“We couldn’t release them because we had no way to get them home,” Dasher said.

Dasher said the campus was evacuated as a precaution and so that law enforcement agents could conduct a more thorough search of the building.



To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.