Walgreens victim of burglary

Staff Writer

UPSTATE - A Seneca man was arrested Thursday after he led an Easley police officer on a chase that later ended in Spartanburg County.

James Michael Holder, 18, was arrested after he was involved in a single car crash in Spartanburg sometime after law enforcement had discontinued the chase and returned to Easley, Major Tim Tollison, with that agency, said.

According to Tollison, the agency received an alarm call just before 1:30 a.m. indicating a disturbance at Walgreens, on U.S. 123.

As the responding patrol officer drive to the business, he saw a vehicle parked at the nearby CVS Pharmacy, he said.

The officer continued onto the Walgreens alarm and, once there, he saw that the pharmacy drive-through window had been damaged, after which he turned around and to attempt to find the truck he spotted earlier across the street, Tollison said.

"He tried to catch up with that vehicle, and did at the on-ramp at Highways 123 and 153," he said.

The vehicle did pull over for the officer's blue lights, but when the officer attempted to assist Holder from the truck, the man accelerated away, causing the door of the truck to strike the officer's arm, he said.

The officer then returned to his patrol vehicle and proceeded to follow Holder's truck as it traveled I-85 through Greenville County and into Spartanburg, he said.

Tollison said information was not available at what speeds the two vehicles traveled during the chase.

The pursuit was ended after Holder's mother called the Easley Police Department dispatcher and identified her son as the driver of the truck, Tollison said.

"Evidently, he called his mother, who called us," he said.

Once the identity of the driver was known, the officer discontinued the pursuit and was returning to Easley when law enforcement with the City of Spartanburg notified Easley that Holder had been in a traffic accident in their jurisdiction, Tollison said.

And because Holder had not been charged with any criminal offense in Spartanburg, Easley officers were able to return to that city and then transport Holder back to Pickens County, he said.

Holder, who did gain entry into Walgreens, was placed in the Pickens County Sheriff's Office Detention Center on a $70,000 bond, Tollison said. He is facing charges of assault and battery with intent to kill, burglary, and destruction, damage or vandalism to property.