Man offers DeKalb cops $35,000 bribe to stop arresting him, police say

Tristahn Ash

The scene was strange from the start.

DeKalb County police got a call Friday about a stolen Honda Fit spotted at Serenade Apartments on Flat Shoals Parkway. While officers looked over it and other suspected stolen cars parked nearby, someone kept pressing the clicker: locked, unlocked, locked, unlocked.

Police say they confirmed two were stolen and they staked out a third to see who would drive it, according to an incident report.

They soon spotted Tristahn Ash, 20, get behind the wheel of the 2015 Infiniti QX80, valued at $42,111, the report said. Police pulled him over on Flat Shoals Parkway near Columbia Drive, but he allegedly ran, only to be caught a few hundred feet away.

That’s when he allegedly tried to bribe an officer to let him go.

“Officer, my money is long. I got 20 bands ($20,000),” the report quotes him saying. “If you help me, I can help you.”

READ: Why five Atlanta Child Murders cases are still unsolved

READ: In Fulton and DeKalb, dozens of murder suspects out on bond

READ: Cops: DeKalb man's car gets towed, he threatens to kill all involved

The cop thought he was joking until Ash asked to speak to a detective on scene. The cop listened as they spoke and then heard the detective exclaim:

“You trying to bribe me, oh no, buddy, that’s another charge.”

Warrants allege Ash offered the detective $10,000 to $15,000.

Police determined the Infiniti was stolen out of Clayton County and confiscated it, along with a handgun, 39 grams of marijuana and a scale.

Possessing the gun was a violation of Ash’s probation from a Fulton County case in which he received a stolen car, the report said.

In DeKalb he faces charges of bribery, theft by receiving, possessing a car with an altered VIN and more.

He remained in jail Tuesday.

Like DeKalb County News Now on Facebook | Follow on Twitter

In other news: