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Name Not Disclosed

Age : 37

Gender : Female

Race : Black

Date : 08/01/2021

Location : Lithonia Industrial Boulevard and Old Hillandale Drive

City : Atlanta

County : DeKalb

State : Georgia

Agency : Georgia State Patrol, Newton County Police Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Passenger killed by police chase crash

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

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REASON FOR POLICE CHASE:
Stolen vehicle. Newton County Sheriff’s Office deputies were pursuing a stolen Volkswagen Passat west on Interstate 20. At approximately 11:25 a.m., a Georgia State Patrol trooper joined the pursuit near Exit 88, and near mile marker 77 the trooper took over the chase from the sheriff’s deputies. The Volkswagen was driven by 30-year-old Ronreaco Wendell Bailey.
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EVENT NARRATIVE:
On 08/01/2021, a 37-year-old woman was killed while riding in the right-rear seat of a stolen Volkswagen Passat pursued by Newton County sheriff’s deputies and a Georgia State Patrol trooper from Newton County into DeKalb County. She was a passenger and was not driving the vehicle.
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Newton County deputies were pursuing the Passat westbound on Interstate 20 near Exit 88 when a Georgia State Patrol trooper began assisting at approximately 11:25 a.m. Near mile marker 77, GSP said its trooper took over the pursuit.
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Bailey exited I-20 at Turner Hill Road, drove through a red traffic signal and reentered westbound I-20. He subsequently exited I-20 again at Exit 74 and, according to GSP, entered the intersection at Evans Mill Road against another red traffic signal.
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The pursuit continued toward Lithonia Industrial Boulevard and Old Hillandale Drive. A Ford Super Duty truck towing a Ford Explorer was traveling south on Lithonia Industrial Boulevard as the Passat approached the intersection. The front of the Passat struck the left-front portion of the trailer carrying the Explorer, causing the Passat to overturn.
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The 37-year-old woman riding in the right-rear seat of the Passat suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene. Bailey and front-seat passenger Jatina Banks, 31, suffered serious injuries and were transported by ambulance to Grady Memorial Hospital. The driver of the Ford truck suffered minor injuries and declined medical treatment.
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No PIT/TVI maneuver, stop-stick deployment, roadblock or intentional police-vehicle contact immediately preceding the fatal collision is identified in the available public reporting. The surviving accounts also do not provide a measured maximum speed, exact pursuit duration, total pursuit distance, following distance between the trooper and Passat at the time of the collision, or whether supervisors considered terminating the pursuit.
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The original Georgia State Patrol account withheld the deceased woman's identity pending notification of her family. Her full name has not been reliably established in the public material located for this reconstruction. The absence of a confirmed identity also prevents reliable biographical information about her family, work and life from being included.
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Bailey survived the catastrophic crash but remained hospitalized for an extraordinarily long period. He was not booked into the DeKalb County Jail until August 2025, approximately four years after the collision. The later case was filed under his full name, Ronreaco Wendell Bailey. Court records show the criminal prosecution continuing into 2026 under DeKalb County Superior Court case number 25CR4257.
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Bailey was booked on charges that included felony murder arising from the fatal pursuit crash. The four-year delay between the crash and his booking was attributed in later reporting to his hospitalization rather than authorities abandoning the case.
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Public court records also show that Bailey had prior Georgia criminal cases before the fatal pursuit. Morgan County Superior Court records show a 2018 prosecution charging him with three counts of theft by taking. These prior allegations are not identified as the reason for the 2021 pursuit and therefore do not alter the documented initiating reason for the chase: the stolen Volkswagen.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND:
The Newton County Sheriff’s Office deputies who initially pursued the stolen Volkswagen and the Georgia State Patrol trooper who subsequently took over the pursuit have not been publicly identified in the available reporting. Because no pursuing officer has been reliably identified, no individual officer disciplinary, use-of-force, shooting or prior-pursuit history can be attributed to this case.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/1-dead-following-police-pursuit-of-stolen-vehicle/85-c53057e3-db64-44d2-b2ea-04db2b236520
https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/suspect-in-2021-police-chase-crash-booked-four-years-later-hospitalization/85-56f924fd-c42b-46fb-b885-44deeab098f4
https://www.ajc.com/news/police-woman-37-killed-in-crash-when-car-flees-deputies-troopers/TDRZDIQMNVB3TPQ4YINOCRYTT4/
https://dekalbgasuperiorcourt.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/9AM-PT-NAME-LIST-02.10.25.pdf