MOULTRIE – A stolen Buick LeSabre flipped to a stop early Friday morning on Highway 133 after the driver lost control while fleeing from the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office.

Following the rolling of the car, the driver fled on foot, leaving a 16-year-old female in the front passenger seat. 

While several officers pursued the driver, others remained with the victim until EMTs arrived at the scene. She was transported to Colquitt County Hospital in stable condition, according to Colquitt County sheriff’s investigator Ronald Jordan.

The suspect — who Jordan identified as 29-year-old Quatarius Minatee — remains at large. 

“We used helicopters and K9 units to try and locate him,” said Jordan. “However, we were unable to apprehend him.”

Minatee has active warrants for illegal possession of destructive devices, felony fleeing and attempting to elude police officers, burglary in the second degree and a plethora of traffic offenses.   

Upon searching the vehicle, several other stolen items — such as speakers, laptops and other electronics — were also recovered, as was a sawed off shotgun. 

“The Moultrie Police Department will probably add their own charges as well,” said Jordan. “A lot of the stolen items we recovered were reported from within the city limits.”   

Minatee has been connected to multiple burglaries in both the city of Moultrie and Colquitt County and has active warrants in multiple counties across South Georgia, Jordan said.  

The deputy who initially saw the stolen Buick called for assistance when the vehicle failed to pull over after the blue lights and sirens were activated.    

Additional units joined the pursuit, which headed down Old Doerun Road after the driver performed an illegal U-turn. 

“After he turned left on Millpond he lost control of the vehicle,” said Jordan. “He went into a field but managed to get back on the road and kept driving down Old Doerun Road.” 

Not much later Minatee left the road again and began driving through the new construction, which is what finally caused the vehicle to crash.  

“He was driving on freshly compacted dirt going 70-80 miles per hour,” said Jordan. “He ended up hitting a brick draining system and went airborne and, because of common physics, didn’t land level and lost control. The vehicle flipped like three or four times.”  

The CCSO is actively working to apprehend him and encourage anyone in the community who has information about his whereabouts to call 229-890-5449 to leave an anonymous tip.