Chase ends in crash Friday
By Nelson Bland
Published in News on August 4, 2014 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- A car being pursued by Mount Olive police early Friday wrecked and flipped over in view of officers, but the driver, who was the only occupant of the vehicle, escaped injury, Chief of Police Brian Rhodes said.
The motorist, Ricky Martel Usher, 41, of 388 N.C. 11 East, Pink Hill, was arrested on charges of driving while license revoked, driving while impaired, careless and reckless driving, a stop sign violation and felony fleeing to elude arrest.
He was placed under a $5,000 bond at the Wayne County Jail at Goldsboro.
Rhodes said the vehicle reached speeds of 80 miles per hour as it was being pursued by police out of town and onto Jones-Turner Road east of Mount Olive in Duplin County.
Two officers in a patrol car, Ptl. Kelly Grady and Cpl. Johnny Gonzales, spotted Usher operating the car on North Breazeale Avenue, Rhodes said.
He said the officers knew Usher did not have a driver's license and attempted to stop the vehicle, but Usher "took off" south on Breazeale Avenue.
The car fled down Breazeale Avenue to Park Avenue where it turned left, or east, on Park Avenue before the officers temporarily lost sight of it, Rhodes said.
Police looked for the vehicle in the general area before they regained sight of it again on Fleer Street at East James Street at the town cemetery.
Rhodes said the car came off Bell Avenue, onto a block of East College Street and then on Fleer Street and then on East James Street before it fled down East James Street and out of town and into Duplin County.
The vehicle then hit the Rones Chapel Road past the old Scotties Pool site just out of town before turning left onto the Jones-Turner Road, Rhodes said.
The vehicle was traveling about 80 mph when it ran off the right side of the road in a curve, the driver tried to correct the car's path before crossing the road, striking a ditch and overturning, Rhodes said.
The vehicle overturned and landed on its top with Usher still inside, Rhodes said. He said, however, Usher was not injured and attempted to escape and resisted officers as Gonzales and Grady assisted him out of the car and handcuffed him.