County officials declined to answer questions about Decaturish’s investigation into the April 16 crash and the increase in police chases.
Public records show the April 16 chase appeared to violate the department’s chase policy. The crash occurred in a school zone at the end of the school day, with pedestrians present. The county’s policy explicitly prohibits chases in areas with “heavy pedestrian traffic,” including school zones. Changes to the chase policy led to a nearly 500% increase in police chases from 2024 to 2025, according to reports the county submitted to the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police (GACP).
A county spokesperson noted Catchings’ death is “the subject of pending litigation.”
“In addition, the pursuit associated with the incident is scheduled to be reviewed by the DeKalb County Police Department’s Internal Review Board,” the spokesperson said. “To preserve the integrity of both the ongoing litigation and the department’s administrative review process, it would be inappropriate for county representatives to comment publicly on the facts or circumstances of the incident at this time.”
Tiffany Reed, Robert’s aunt, grapples with the question of how much time Odeh should spend in prison. She believes there should be some accountability for him, up to a certain point.
“Do I feel like he should go to prison for the rest of his life for something that DeKalb County also had their hand in? No,” she said.
When DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson took office in 2025, she authorized a new crime-fighting tool.
Police would be allowed to pursue people for nonviolent crimes, such as property crimes, under the new policy. It is a policy with known risks.
Chases account for hundreds of deaths every year, though there’s no reliable national database tracking this information. Those killed are often bystanders, according to a 2015 USA Today analysis. In early April, the Associated Press reported police pursuits had caused eight deaths nationwide in less than a week.
In 2023, the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) recommended limiting chases to life-or-death situations. Chases should be limited to when someone has committed a violent crime or is an imminent threat, PERF advised. The county did not follow that advice.
Cochran-Johnson’s policy shift resulted in a dramatic increase in police chases. In 2024, the department reported 17 vehicle pursuits to GACP. In 2025, the year the new policy was announced, the number of chases increased to 99.
GACP is an accrediting agency and only provides chase data for agencies that report data to it. GACP Executive Director Butch Ayers said of the agencies that report data to his organization, only the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office had more chases than DeKalb County.
“Obviously there was a change in policy down there [in DeKalb County],” Ayers said. “The number certainly jumped out.”
The county spokesperson said officials continuously evaluate police department policies.
“The safety of the public, our officers, and everyone involved remains the department’s highest priority,” the spokesperson said.
Ayers is skeptical that more police chases will lead to less crime. If a chase leads to the arrest of a serious offender, like a murderer or rapist, hopefully that means the suspect will not reoffend. But if the underlying cause of the chase is something like speeding, he doesn’t think a chase will necessarily deter other people from speeding.
“Just saying more chases is going to lower the crime rate, I don’t think that will happen,” Ayers said.
The county spokesperson acknowledged the increase in chases and noted there were no pursuit-related fatalities in 2025. The county did, however, report 28 pursuit-related injuries in 2025, including two described as serious, according to data it provided GACP.
One of the parties who was seriously injured was a passenger in a vehicle being chased. Another was an uninvolved third party. Three officers also received minor injuries in 2025.
“Despite that increase, every reported pursuit in 2025 was determined through the Department’s administrative review process to be compliant with policy,” the spokesperson said.
The chase that led to Catchings’ death this year appears to have deviated from county policy in a significant way.
Unnecessary dangers
The chase began at around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, after a Flock camera alerted the police department’s aerial support unit about a stolen 2024 Mitsubishi Mirage.
An officer attempted a traffic stop at the intersection of Panola Road and Snapfinger Woods Drive. The driver, identified as Odeh, sped off, driving northbound on Panola Road at speeds exceeding 90 mph. The speed limit in that zone is 45 mph, the arrest warrant notes. Odeh allegedly ignored traffic control devices and drove on the wrong side of the road to elude police.
A police helicopter monitored the pursuit from above.
The officer attempted to use the precision immobilization technique, or PIT maneuver, a controversial police tactic authorized under the county’s new chase policy. In a PIT maneuver, an officer strategically hits a suspect’s vehicle, causing it to spin out with the goal of ending the pursuit. The PIT was unsuccessful and the officer’s vehicle never made contact with the stolen Mirage, the report said.
However, Odeh’s mother, Renita Slappey, and Reed believe that a PIT maneuver ultimately caused Odeh to crash.
The report asserts that Odeh lost control while attempting to make a sharp left turn at the intersection of Miller Road and Covington Highway. That report is backed up by at least one eyewitness, Calvin Stone.
“Nobody else hit the car,” Stone said. “ … When they hit the curb, they hit the pole.”
Slappey said her son maintains he was hit by the officer before he lost control of the vehicle.
“He said they hit him from the back,” Slappey said.
Slappey has started a petition seeking to have the charges against her son reduced because of the role the police chase played in this case.
Reed believes the PIT maneuver caused the crash based on her review of photos.
“If that kid had made that left-hand turn and lost control, the vehicle would have gone totally in the opposite direction and then facing the opposite direction,” she said. “He had to have been hit that way.”
The department’s chase policy has an extensive list of tactics prohibited during police chases. Prohibited tactics include, “Pursuing in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, e.g. sidewalks, shopping centers, active school zones.”
The chase did not start in a school zone, but the crash occurred at the intersection of Miller Road and Covington Highway. According to DeKalb County Schools, the school zone is between the intersections of Miller Road and Wilkins Road and Miller Road and Covington Highway. The afternoon school zone runs from 3:45 p.m. to 4:25 p.m., the spokesperson said.
The report notes the officer abandoned the PIT maneuver “due to increased traffic volume and concern for public safety.”
The department’s policy dictates that pursuits “shall be terminated” when “the hazards of exposing the officer and the public to unnecessary dangers are high.” The pursuits must also be terminated when “Road conditions are congested by traffic or pedestrians (especially during rush hour or in a school zone),” the policy states.
Broken bodies
The chase resulted in significant injuries to Odeh and Robert Stuckey.
Slappey, Odeh’s mother, said the crash broke her son’s hip. Robert was airlifted to the hospital. His mother, Kenda, said he’s still recovering.
Kenda Stuckey and Reed both believe the county did not need to pursue the stolen vehicle, especially given the circumstances.
“The helicopter was on him,” Stuckey said. “They should just stop the chase.”
“There was no need for them to light him up in that school zone,” Reed said.
Stone, who witnessed the incident, said he also disagreed with the officer’s decision to chase a stolen car when no one’s life was in immediate danger.
“If nobody in the car was hurt, I would have let that go, because that could have prevented somebody getting hit or killed,” Stone said.
Slappey said her son is not to blame for the crash.
“I think it’s actually the police’s fault, because if they hadn’t performed the PIT maneuver in the school zone, none of that would’ve even happened,” she said.
The charges are stacking up for Odeh. In addition to the seven charges he faces from the crash, including felony murder, in July he was charged with felony abuse of an elder person in connection to the case.
Jason White, who represented Odeh, believes his client was overcharged in this case. He said his client had a minimal criminal history and was on track to graduate high school.
“There is a reason the legislature has delineated this crime of vehicular homicide,” he said. “It’s for cases exactly like this.”
He said he did not believe the slew of charges against his client stemmed from the police department’s involvement in causing the crash.
“Not at this time,” he said.
Carl Appen contributed reporting to this story. This story was provided by WABE media partner Decaturish.
