A man who robbed the Fred’s Super Dollar Store at 6179 Highway 278 led Covington Police on a chase to DeKalb County and The Mall at Stonecrest Sunday afternoon.

According to CPD Capt. Ken Malcom an officer responded to a 911 call within seconds of the robbery taking place at 3:06 p.m. Spotting the van pulling away from the Fred’s, the officer followed the suspect - Stephen Cheal Young, of Loganvile - down Highway 278 and onto I-20 westbound.

Young failed to stop along 278, and once he reached I-20 the chase sped up to speeds of 100 mph, according to Malcom.

After concluding the chase on Turner Hill Road in Lithonia, Young then fled into Kohl’s department store, grabbed some clothes and quickly changed. As he came out of the dressing room, Kohl’s loss prevention officer approached him, before she was struck in the face.

The loss prevention officer then recovered, and along with a mall security officer subdued and arrested Young, who was then taken into custody.

After Young was arrested, police recovered a weapon, which at first was believed to be a handgun but was revealed to be a BB gun, an undisclosed amount of money, the stolen clothes and the van. Young was charged with armed robbery and fleeing to elude.

Authorities from Georgia State Patrol and the DeKalb County Police Department assisted with the arrest that began with an alert CPD officer.

“The officer did an excellent job to get to the scene quickly, and pursuing the suspect,” Malcom said. “They did an excellent job of following policy in what could have had a violent outcome. We were able to arrest him without anything more serious happening, other than the loss prevention officer getting struck.”