CHATTANOOGA — Jaylyn Q. Dupree pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and evading arrest in connection with a March 22 shootout on Old Mission Road in Chattanooga. He received a three-year suspended sentence for aggravated assault and a consecutive one-year suspended sentence for evading arrest.

Criminal Court Judge Boyd Patterson warned Dupree that if he gets into further legal trouble during the diversion period, he could face up to six years in prison. The evading arrest charge stemmed from a separate incident on April 29, when Dupree fled from an officer who recognized his vehicle as possibly linked to the March 22 shootout.

According to officials, on March 22, Dupree was driving a white Honda Accord eastbound on Old Mission Road at a high rate of speed, with Christopher Giles as the front seat passenger, chasing a silver Kia Optima. At 8:39 p.m. that evening, residents reported hearing multiple gunshots. Police were told individuals were seen running from a vehicle on Old Mission Road, and one caller reported a suspect hiding in his garage.

Officers detained two females during the incident, including one who ran from behind a house on N. Lovell Avenue with her hands up, shouting, "They were shooting at us." Torey Jermayne Flowers, 23, emerged from the same location with his hands raised and said, "They had been shot at." Flowers was the front seat passenger in the Kia Optima.

Police collected video footage from along the chase route and a Hop-In convenience store. Officers found multiple spent shell casings at the scene from 9mm and .40 caliber firearms and later located a stolen 9mm Taurus handgun. Dupree was initially charged with attempted first-degree murder and firearm possession during a dangerous felony. The charges were filed directly in Criminal Court by information, bypassing the Grand Jury.