Warren County Sheriffs Deputy Bo McLeod, left, shows state Trooper Wayne Smith where his patrol car was damaged Monday. Looking on is Deputy Johnny Beauchamp.(Meredith Spencer  The Vicksburg Post)

[8/3/04]A high-speed chase that began in Rolling Fork Monday afternoon led law enforcement officers on a 40-mile pursuit that ended 8 miles north of Redwood in Warren County.

Fredrick Lashawn Langino, 31, 204 Pinkins Road, was arrested at 1:14 p.m. on Mississippi 3. Authorities said he stole a Mitsubishi Eclipse, owned by Rolling Fork resident Lenard Davis, and that triggered the chase through three counties. One Warren County Sheriff’s Department vehicle was damaged.

Davis, 21, said he had stopped at a grocery in Rolling Fork to buy something to drink when the clerk noticed that someone had taken his car, which he’d left running in the parking lot.

“I looked up and saw my car shoot off and went down the highway,” Davis said.

Willie Bethley, an off-duty Sharkey County deputy, started the chase south on U.S. 61. In Issaquena County, he caught up with the stolen car and then Warren County Sheriff’s Deputies Bo McLeod and Johnny Beauchamp met the vehicles at the Mississippi 3 and U.S. 61 interchange just south of the Yazoo River Bridge and joined the pursuit.

As the caravan headed north, the driver of the stolen car began traveling in the southbound lanes and into oncoming traffic. One tire blew out, but the car kept going, at about 70 mph.

“He was challenging oncoming traffic, and he slammed into me when I was coming up beside him,” McLeod said. “I was trying to pass him to slow down the traffic in front of us.”

That’s when Bethley, McLeod and Beauchamp formed a “rolling roadblock” and forced the driver off the road.

Langino was taken to the Issaquena County Correctional Facility, and no bond had been set.

Rolling Fork police charged him with grand larceny, and Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said a felony pursuit charge is expected in Warren County.

“I’m going to give Sharkey County the first shot at charging him but if they don’t, I will,” Pace said.