Raleigh — A car chase, crash and police gunfight with a robbery suspect closed part of Interstate 40 in Raleigh on Tuesday morning after Highway Patrol troopers pursued a man from Duplin County, police said. Bullets brought down the suspect in his car on the side of the highway near mile marker 301after troopers and a Wake County sheriff's deputy opened fire, Troopers confirmed. They said officers saw the suspect with a gun and his torso out of a window of the the car after it went out of control and came to a stop. Authorities had deployed "stop sticks," devices that damage vehicle tires when they are driven over, and the car slowed, troopers said. They had also deployed the sticks at the 312 and 308 mile markers without success, they said The windshield of the vehicle showed damage from several bullets and its door stood ajar. The man, who was not identified, was taken to WakeMed's trauma unit after the shooting, troopers. A Duplin County sheriff's deputy began the chase following an armed robbery about 10:30 a.m. at a BP station in Magnolia, and troopers took it up, the Highway Patrol said. The chase went through Sampson and Johnston counties before coming into Wake County at about 11 a.m. The aftermath of the incident brought traffic to a standstill westbound and interfered with eastbound traffic as well. It occurred in the area where I-40 and I-440 come together. Raleigh police and state DOT traffic trucks set up detours for westbound traffic as officers investigated. Police were sending traffic off the pavement and onto the median to turn around as they worked to relieve a backup that occurred when the incident forced drivers to stop. Raleigh police said they were routing westbound traffic onto the Outer Loop of the Beltline. Traffic on the Inner Loop of the Beltline, which runs with I-40 westbound at that point, was being diverted to I-40 eastbound.
construction zone a co-worker of mine said that when the "speeder" got to the construction zone between 42 & 70, he busted through the orange safety barrels and drove on the right side of the the concrete barriers (on the side closest to the construction eqt and workers!!). Some of those workers were likely in severe danger at that time!!
The 23 yr old had mental problems and his father was trying for sometime to help him get help. He was registered to have that gun, not that means that he was in the right to have it..when the kids father found out about it, he tried so hard to get it from him..there is so much more to this story that is in the paper or on the news about the kids history and problems. The family doesn't blame the police and knows they were doing what they felt they needed to do..most of this is in the paper already..but there is much more to it all as well. Sheri
