Chase reaching 100 mph starts in Elizabeth City, ends in Chesapeake

ELIZABETH CITY

A 26-year-old man faces charges in North Carolina and Virginia in connection with a high-speed chase that started in Elizabeth City and ended in Chesapeake on Thursday.

Shortly before 9 a.m., a woman called 911 to report that a man in a white car had pointed a gun at her while she was stopped at an entrance to Elizabeth City State University, said Lt. John Etheridge of the Elizabeth City Police Department.

An officer patrolling the area saw a man in a white car that fit the description, circling a neighborhood near the university. The officer tried to stop the man, who instead sped off, Etheridge said.

The man headed north to the West Church Street neighborhood in downtown Elizabeth City, Etheridge said. He reached speeds of 70 to 100 mph in the residential neighborhood, where he zigzagged onto several different streets until he eventually turned onto Elizabeth Street, near Sheep-Harney Elementary School.

When the chase got close to the school, police called off the pursuit for safety reasons, Etheridge said. Schools in the area were on a two-hour delay for fog, and school buses were just starting to come into the area.

The man crossed the Camden Causeway Bridge east into Camden County. He turned south onto Country Club Road, then turned onto Seymour Drive and finally turned north onto N.C. 343. At the intersection with U.S. 158, he turned back onto the road headed east, where Camden deputies caught up with him, said Camden County Sheriff Tony Perry.

Deputies contacted Currituck County to try to lay stop sticks on the road, but he was driving too fast, Perry said.

"It was foggy and the school buses were coming," Perry said. "We were trying not to make it worse."

The man continued into Currituck County on N.C. 34, where he sped past a school bus stopped for children, then headed north on N.C. 168 to the Virginia border, said Randall Edwards, a Currituck County spokesman.

Currituck notified Chesapeake that officers were in pursuit of a vehicle headed toward the city, said Chesapeake Police spokesman Gus Mojic a.

A Chesapeake officer spotted the car, a Hyundai Accent with Florida tags, in the Hickory area of the city. The car appeared to stall in the 500 block of Benefit Road, and the driver jumped out and began to run, Mojica said. After a brief foot chase, the driver was caught.

Shawn C. Hooker of the 1100 block of Benoist Farms Road in West Palm Beach, Fla., was charged in Chesapeake with reckless driving, obstruction of justice and possession of stolen license tags, Mojica said.

Hooker, who also has an Elizabeth City address, was being held at Chesapeake Correctional Center and no bond had been set.

He also faces multiple traffic offense charges in North Carolina, including a felony charge of speeding to elude arrest in Elizabeth City, careless and reckless driving in Camden County, and failure to stop for a school bus in Currituck County.

Etheridge said Hooker was not the same man reported to have pulled a gun on the woman, and he's not yet sure why Hooker led police on the high-speed chase.

Staff writer Kristin Davis contributed to this report.

Lauren King, (252) 338-2413, lauren.king@pilotonline.com