Authorities say a Tryon man turned a Tuesday night traffic stop into a high-speed sprint across Polk County, topping out in the triple digits before deputies finally boxed him in.
Keith Derrick Holmes, 42, of Tryon, was arrested by Polk County deputies after a pursuit that started in Columbus and ended in the Tryon area at around 8:30 p.m. Holmes is facing multiple counts, including assault on a government official, fleeing to elude, and hit-and-run. Deputies reported that he resisted arrest and allegedly assaulted a Columbus police officer during the stop. He was booked into the Polk County Detention Center, then posted a $31,500 bond and was released the following day.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the county jail maintains a public inmate lookup and daily report system to log arrests and bookings. The sheriff’s detention page notes that the facility, which opened in 2018, has roughly 60 beds. Polk deputies took over Holmes’s custody after officers brought the pursuit to an end.
How the chase unfolded
The Tryon Daily Bulletin reports that the chase kicked off at about 8:15 p.m., when officers tried to pull Holmes over near the Tractor Supply on W. Mills Street and he allegedly refused to stop. Officers said Holmes pushed his speed past 100 mph on Lynn Road and topped 70 mph on Harmon Field Road as multiple agencies jumped into the pursuit before it wrapped up near Tryon around 8:30 p.m…