MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — A Milledgeville man and Sparta man arrested last week following a car chase with authorities were in the possession of stolen guns, local authorities say.

One of the suspects also reportedly admitted that he and two of his friends had set out to find the people responsible for shooting up his house last week. The suspect’s house was one of several recently involved in drive-by shootings in Milledgeville and Baldwin County. 

The men got into a car chase with a deputy from the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office that ultimately led to three men in the car jumping out and running away on foot.

During a brief manhunt that followed two suspects were captured by deputies and officers and detectives with the Milledgeville Police Department. A third man got away and remained at-large Monday afternoon at presstime, according to Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office Detective Thomas “T.J.” Hargrove.

The suspects in car chase were identified as Shandrikus Brookins, 18, of the 1100 block of Log Cabin Road, Sparta; and Travis Terrell Simmons, 18, of the 100 block of Park Avenue, Milledgeville.

Brookins, who is believed to have been driving the 2007 Honda Accord involved in the car chase with Deputy Brandon Towe early last Thursday, was charged with fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, theft by receiving stolen property, failure to drive within a single lane, failure to stop for a stop sign, and driving outside license provisions, jail records show.

Simmons, meanwhile, was charged with one count of theft by receiving stolen property and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.

Hargrove said he plans to talk with someone in the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office in the coming days to see if additional charges can be filed against the suspects under the Georgia Terroristic Gang Act.

The detective said there is reason to believe that the recent drive-by shootings are gang-related.

“We do believe that all of this is a back-and-forth thing between two different gangs,” Hargrove said.

He said he did not wish to publicly identify the gangs without confirmation that they are the gangs responsible for the recent shootings.

“The car that was being chased, we believe, was in the process of doing a retaliation-type shooting,” Hargrove said. “However, they had not made it there, and therefore no gunshots were ever fired from this vehicle before it was stopped.”

Hargrove said Monday that through intelligence information he has learned the nickname of the third suspect wanted for questioning in connection with the car chase and foot chase with local authorities.

“We’re still in the process of trying to get his full name at this time,” Hargrove told The Union-Recorder in an interview Monday. 

Hargrove said a search warrant was executed last Friday morning on the car involved in the chase.

During the search of the car, Hargrove said he and Detective Greg See recovered a Taurus P-111 and two extended 30-round fully-loaded magazines.

The gun was found under the driver’s seat in the car, which authorities impounded after the chase.

Authorities already had recovered another P-111 gun, Hargrove said.

“We’re still in the process of trying to figure out where everybody was positioned in the car at the time of the chase,” Hargrove said. “We do believe at this time that the driver was the person that the car is registered to.”

The detective said several cellphones also were recovered.

“We plan to see if there is information on those phones that might help us further in this investigation,” Hargrove said.