Store Manager’s Quick Reaction Leads To Man Pleading Guilty

The quick reaction of a store manager helped in a Rising Fawn man pleading guilty to shoplifting and leading cops on a police chase.
The Hibbett Sports store manager is credited with quickly snapping a photograph of a shoplifter jumping on a motorcycle and fleeing. A Summerville Police Officer immediately started chasing the suspect. Cops might not have caught the motorcycle, but a photograph of the driver eventually became his downfall.
Now 47-year-old Zaakari Scott Webb has pleaded guilty to shoplifting, fleeing or attempting to elude officers, reckless driving, speeding and driving with a revoked driver’s license. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, a year of probation and fined $250, according to Chattooga County Superior Court records.
Webb entered the store in October 2017 and began concealing items and then left without paying. Webb jumped on a blue Kawasaki motorcycle and began to leave.
A quick-reacting store manager, however, stepped outside and snapped a photograph that depicts the rider and a license plate..
“I was right at the old Ford dealership place,” Summerville Police Officer David Westbrooks said as the call was dispatched.
The officer zoomed north and eventually caught up with the motorcycle.
“[I] made contact with a blue motorcycle with a subject wearing a blue colored jacket operating it around the highway bridge on new Highway 27 and attempted to stop the vehicle. The motorcycle slowed down and at first thought that they were going to pull onto Mountain View Road off Highway 27. The subject then accelerated to a high speed and ran from [me],” Officer Westbrooks stated. “It was obvious that the subject was not going to stop for blue lights and sirens.”
The chase quickly reached speeds greater than 100 miles per hour. Westbrooks decided to stop the chase because he already had a good description of the alleged shoplifter and a license plate.
“[I] was able to obtain the driver’s license information on the suspect in this case and as a result was able to obtain a photograph of the suspect. [I] went back to Hibbitt Sports and spoke to the victim who positively identified the subject in the photo as being the same male subject who had committed the shoplifting in the store,” Officer Westbrooks said.