JACKSON COUNTY, Ga. — Police arrested a member of the Georgia Bulldogs football team accused of driving more than 120 mph to escape police in Commerce.
UGA head coach Kirby Smart said Monday that redshirt freshman Nyier Daniels is off the team after Sunday’s arrest.
Police say Daniels, 19, his little brother and his little sister were in the car, Channel 2’s Tom Regan learned.
The now former UGA football player was at the wheel of souped up BMW when police say he was speeding down the street. A clerk at a convenience store says he watched it fly by.
“Behind a truck I see a BMW go flying by. It was so fast, if you blinked you would have miss it,” Namom Pressley said.
Investigators say Daniels’ mom got pulled over in another for running a stop sign before the chase started.
“He made a statement to the officer when he came to turn himself in, that he saw his mother pulled over and he didn’t want her to get a ticket, so basically created a distraction,” said Commerce Police Chief Jeff Drossman.
The police chief says Daniels’ mother tried to a block A police supervisor’s vehicle with her car, as other police gave chase.
“As you get outside the 25-mph mark, where it jumps up to 35, is where the vehicle started hitting triple digits,” Drossman said.
The chief says Daniels’ car hit over 120 mph, as it got onto the interstate, so his officers decided it was best to call off the chase.
“The fear inside that car with these children, had my officers known there were kids in the car it would not have gone on as long as it did,” the police chief said.
People who work and shop in commerce were stunned by the UGA player allegedly speeding at that rate through town on a Sunday morning.
“I think it’s horrible. I think he needs to go to jail and suffer the consequences, because somebody could have been killed,” Jody Parks said.
Daniels faces numerous charges including speeding reckless driving and child endangerment. His mother has also been arrested and charged.
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