Authorities investigate hit and run and deadly police chase in Hanahan

What began as a hit-and-run, ends in a deadly police chase in Hanahan.  Officials say it happened just after eleven Saturday morning on Yeamans Hall Road in Hanahan.

Police say 56-year-old Nathaniel Gibbs took a friend’s truck without permission, side-swiped a van, and left the scene.  Unaware of the hit and run, officers spotted gibbs later driving erratically, and tried to pull him over.  Police say Gibbs took off and was traveling down Yeaman’s Hall Road at 70 to 80 miles per hour.  He lost control of the truck, ran off the roadway, and hit a tree and a light pole. Gibbs was pronounced dead at Trident Hospital.

Glenn Rauhofer’s wife was driving the van Gibbs hit.  His two kids were also in the van.  Everyone is o-k, but he says he has concerns over how long it took before police and EMS to arrive at the scene.  Rauhofer says, “I’m grateful that my family is ok.  My wife’s shoulder is a little beat up,  my kids are alive, but if it was to happen to someone else’s family, the response time… it was finally one hour before EMS got there.“

Lt. Michael Fowler with the Hanahan Police Department says when the chase first started, the officers did not know about the hit and run.  Lt. Fowler says,  “We were not as expeditious in getting to that scene as we probably should have been.  The dispatcher did make contact with them, and said we haven’t forgotten about you, please understand everybody is tied up right now,  and we did finally get some one there as quickly as possible.  We did not know that the accident had occurred prior to this other incident going on.“

Hanahan is investigating the hit and run.  The Highway Patrol is investigating the police chase crash.