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Mathew Benton

Age : 34

Gender : Male

Race : Black

Date : 08/17/2025

Location : Interstate 285 East near the I-75 South interchange

City : College Park

County : Clayton

State : Georgia

Agency : College Park Police Department

Officer(s) :Sgt. Donnie Smith Jr.

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Passenger killed by police chase crash

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/17/2025, 34-year-old Mathew Benton was killed when a 2009 Land Rover being pursued by College Park Police Sgt. Donnie Smith Jr. at more than 100 mph left Interstate 285 East near the I-75 South interchange, struck a tree and split apart. Benton was a passenger and was ejected from the vehicle. Driver Victoria Langley was also ejected and killed.
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The Land Rover had been reported stolen. Later reporting established, however, that Smith's pursuit was unauthorized. The arrest warrants charging Smith do not state why he initiated the pursuit, leaving unresolved whether Smith knew before pursuing that the vehicle had been reported stolen or what specific event caused him to begin chasing it.
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Smith pursued the Land Rover in a College Park Police Department Ford Explorer and exceeded 100 mph. Investigators later characterized his driving as reckless and alleged that the pursuit endangered life and property.
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The Land Rover left the roadway, struck a tree and was torn apart by the impact. Benton and Langley were both ejected and died.
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The most extraordinary development came after the crash. Investigators alleged that Smith witnessed the Land Rover leave the highway, strike the tree and split apart but did not stop. According to his arrest warrants, Smith neither rendered aid nor reported the collision and instead continued driving away.
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Benton's mother, Deolisa Benton, said the family initially understood that her son had simply died in a crash. She said she was not told that a College Park police pursuit had preceded the collision and only learned later what investigators alleged Smith had done.
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The family publicly contested the circumstances and demanded accountability. After Smith was arrested, Deolisa Benton said she was relieved that the case was being treated as a criminal matter and described being particularly devastated by the allegation that Smith left her son at the crash scene without attempting to help him.
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College Park fired Smith on 08/22/2025, five days after Benton and Langley were killed. He was arrested on 09/23/2025 and charged with first-degree homicide by vehicle, hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death, reckless driving, violation of oath by a public officer and failure to report an accident.
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The criminal charges are unusually significant for a pursuit fatality because investigators did not merely criticize Smith's judgment. The warrants alleged that his conduct was reckless and negligent and that leaving the crash without reporting it or rendering aid constituted gross negligence and willful or wanton misconduct.
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The pursuit also appears directly at odds with College Park Police Department's written pursuit policy. The policy requires officers continually to balance the need for immediate apprehension against the risk of death, injury and property damage, states that pursuits must be monitored and reassessed, and directs officers to use tactics designed to minimize their duration.
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The department had already faced major litigation over another pursuit that killed three people. On 01/31/2016, College Park officers pursued a stolen SUV that crashed into another vehicle, killing Dorothy Wright and her grandchildren, 12-year-old Cameron Costner and 6-year-old Layla Partridge. Their family sued the city, alleging that College Park police acted outside the department's pursuit policy.
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That litigation became substantial enough to reach the Georgia Supreme Court in a dispute over insurance coverage and governmental immunity. The state Supreme Court's 2022 decision confirms that all three victims were killed when their vehicle was struck by the stolen vehicle College Park officers were pursuing.
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Thus, by the time Smith pursued the Land Rover in 2025, College Park had already experienced a previous pursuit in which three uninvolved people were killed and the victims' family alleged the department violated its own pursuit rules. The department nevertheless had another fatal pursuit in 2025 that investigators themselves subsequently characterized as unauthorized.
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College Park Police Department was also facing other serious scrutiny around the same period. Less than two weeks before Benton and Langley were killed, a College Park officer shot 31-year-old Dwight Jaheem Robinson-Fikes during a foot pursuit. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation opened an independent investigation into that shooting.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Donnie Smith Jr. was the College Park police sergeant who pursued the Land Rover. He was 47 when arrested. Records establish that Smith had previously worked for the Georgia State University Police Department and Fulton County Sheriff's Office before joining College Park.
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Smith was a College Park police officer by at least 2019 and had subsequently been promoted to sergeant. College Park terminated him five days after the fatal crash.
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Smith's criminal prosecution represents the most significant documented adverse history identified in the officer-background search. He was charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death, reckless driving, violation of oath by a public officer and failure to report an accident.
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The department's own pursuit policy is particularly relevant to Smith's conduct. It expressly recognizes that pursuits can cause death, injury and property damage and requires the necessity for immediate apprehension to be continually balanced against those risks. Investigators subsequently described Smith's pursuit as unauthorized.
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SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/police-sergeant-charged-homicide-after-high-speed-chase-ends-deadly-crash
https://www.ajc.com/news/2025/09/college-park-sergeant-hit-100-mph-in-chase-then-left-deadly-crash-police-say/
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/south-fulton-county/just-left-my-son-mother-shocked-by-college-park-officer-accused-not-helping-after-deadly-crash/
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/09/24/college-park-police-officer-charged-deadly-august-chase/
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/mother-demands-justice-after-son-killed-clayton-county-officer-involved-crash
https://cdnsm5-hosted.civiclive.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_11492833/File/Departments/Police%20Department/Vehicle%20Pursuit%20Policy.pdf
https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/family-sues-college-park-police-after-fatal-crash/pqtNJpF5WP9rNv6SwrXtGI/
https://law.justia.com/cases/georgia/supreme-court/2022/s21g0482.html