Trooper in high-speed chase crashes into, runs over parked car in Burlington, NC
A State Highway Patrol trooper chasing a speeding driver in Alamance County crashed in the driveway of a home in Burlington early Saturday morning, running his cruiser over the top of a parked car.
A video posted on Facebook Saturday showed the patrol vehicle resting on the exposed underside of an overturned Toyota Scion, parked at a home on Bland Boulevard off U.S. Highway 70. It came to a stop, lights still flashing, just feet away from where Viris Russell’s 9-year-old grandson was asleep inside.
“If that car wasn’t there, the state trooper’s car would have come through the house. Through my living room,” Russell told The News & Observer.
She had just walked into the kitchen for a drink when she heard the crash outside, then heard her grandson yell that he saw flashing blue lights.
“He said, ‘Grandma, your car is on the porch, and a police car is on your car,’” Russell said.
First Sgt. Chris Knox, a spokesperson for the State Highway Patrol, said in an emailed statement that a trooper spotted the driver traveling nearly 100 mph eastbound on Interstate 40 at around 2 a.m. Saturday. The trooper gave chase after the driver failed to pull over, Knox said. After exiting the interstate, he said the chase continued onto U.S. 70, then onto Bland Boulevard.
Knox said the trooper then used a “PIT maneuver” to force the other driver to lose control and stop. Both the trooper and suspect vehicles “traveled off the roadway striking a parked vehicle,” Knox said.
The video posted to Facebook, captured by Russell’s son, shows another vehicle parked with its doors ajar just off the road across the street.
Knox said the suspect, 18-year-old Keon-Zae Jhazie Herbin of Burlington, fled on foot but was later arrested. He was charged with felony speeding to elude arrest, possession of a stolen vehicle, driving while impaired, carrying a concealed handgun, reckless driving and a slew of other moving violations related to the chase.
No injuries were reported.
Knox did not answer follow-up questions Saturday about the trooper’s identity, or whether he followed State Highway Patrol policy when he initiated and continued the chase, which came to an end near the entrance of the residential street just east of downtown Burlington. The agency’s policy manual says both the trooper and his or her supervisor must constantly evaluate a range of factors when chasing a suspect in a vehicle, including whether the fleeing suspect’s driving represents a danger to the public and whether the suspect can be apprehended at a later time without putting the public’s safety at risk.
The agency is currently facing a lawsuit in Pitt County court over its conduct in an August 2020 pursuit, which ended in a wreck that killed a 22-year-old East Carolina University intern in the trooper’s vehicle on a ride-along.
In Burlington, Estella Brown, Russell’s landlord, said her tenant called to tell her about the crash Saturday morning.
“She didn’t sleep at all,” Brown said in a phone interview Saturday.
By the time Brown arrived at the house, the scene had been cleared, leaving debris from the vehicles and minor damage to the exterior of the home.
The car parked outside owned by Russell’s nephew — which flipped over the concrete stoop, bent the front door frame and cracked an adjacent picture window — was totaled, Russell said.
She estimated that troopers didn’t check on her and her grandson until about 30 minutes after the crash, once they took the suspect into custody. She wasn’t even sure the driver of the wrecked patrol cruiser was OK at first — a supervisor later told her the trooper jumped out of the vehicle to chase the suspect on foot.
Russell said she was still shaken up from the incident, which left her traumatized.
“Every time i try to close my eyes, I just think about the scene,” Russell said.
