Deputies seeking suspect who left crash scene

Sumter County deputies are still looking for the driver who led them on a high-speed chase late Friday night.
According to a Sumter County Sheriff’s Office report, a Charger nearly side swiped a patrolling deputy’s squad car near Lafayette Drive just before 11 p.m. The officer turned around on the vehicle and spotted the car turning onto Lafayette moments later. The officer initiated a traffic stop, but the driver did not stop, continuing onto Newberry Avenue and onto Manning Avenue before turning westbound on Sheppard Street and through South Main Street at a high rate of speed.
The vehicle crashed into a fence and tree while making a turn at the intersection of Palmetto and Maney streets, the report stated. The driver fled the vehicle and crash scene on foot. Deputies called in K9 units to track the driver’s escape route, but that proved unsuccessful. The owner of the vehicle arrived at the crash scene and told officers she let a 34-year-old Sumter man borrow the car.