PITTSBORO — After a 24-hour search involving several law enforcement agencies and a dramatic car theft attempt, four men who escaped N.C. State Highway Patrol on Saturday are in custody and facing a litany of charges.
The Highway Patrol — with help from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, members of the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, the Wildlife Resources Commission and the Carrboro Police Department — arrested two of the four on Saturday, a third overnight and the last on Sunday morning.
The search started just before 8:30 a.m. Saturday after the Highway Patrol “entered into a chase with a vehicle,” according to Lt. Sara Pack, Chief Public Information Officer for the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office. The pursuit began as a regular traffic stop after police clocked the car driving 94 miles per hour in a 65 miles per hour zone.
“The driver failed to stop for blue lights and siren and a brief vehicle pursuit ended when the suspect vehicle spun out in the median of U.S. Hwy. 64 just east of Siler City,” First Sergeant Christopher D. Knox of the Highway Patrol said. “The four occupants of the vehicle fled the scene on foot into the surrounding wooded area.”
The men and charges leveled against them are as follows, according to a statement from the Highway Patrol:
• Adrian Lowery, 24, of 1384 High Plains, Jacksonville, Florida, to be charged with possession of a stolen weapon and possession of a firearm by felon. His bond was set at $75,000.
• Marcus Brown, 19, of 1128 E 26th Street, Jacksonville, Florida, to be charged with fleeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, possession of a weapon of mass destruction and larceny of motor vehicle. His bond was set at $125,000.
• Caleb Kenyetta Sheffield, 19, of 7676 Jana Lane S, Jacksonville, Florida, to be charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction, possession of a stolen firearm, and resist, obstruct and delay of arrest. His bond was set at $125,000.
The fourth person captured, a juvenile, faces juvenile petitions.
Additional charges are possible. All four are in the Chatham County Detention Facility in Pittsboro.
Two suspects, Lowery and the unidentified juvenile, were captured on Saturday within hours of their escape. According to reports from WRAL.com, the third suspect, Brown, was captured after stealing a WRAL News car.
According to WRAL’s Keenan Willard, who was covering the ongoing search efforts, Brown approached him and photographer Lucas Nelson after their 11 p.m. live shot and offered cash for a ride to the gas station. When Willard and Nelson refused, Brown jumped in the car and drove off on U.S. Hwy. 64. A N.C. Highway Patrol trooper saw the exchange and took off in pursuit. After about five minutes, Brown crashed into a state trooper’s car, and was taken into custody.
“One of the two suspects in the Chatham County manhunt just stole my car and crashed it head-on into a State Trooper after a short chase,” Willard said on Twitter after the incident. “We’re shaken up, but we’re coming back live on @WRAL in a few minutes.”
During the day-long search, both CCSO and Highway Patrol representatives repeatedly emphasized the men were considered armed and dangerous and should not be approached if seen. Sheriff’s Office staff issued a reverse 911 message to residents within a two-mile radius advising them to stay inside with their doors locked as authorities swept the area.
“If any subjects matching that description are spotted by residents,” Pack told the News + Record on Saturday, “we ask that they remain inside and report that information to 911 immediately.”
Community members expressed relief after learning the men had been detained.
“I live in the area they were searching and while it was going on it made us quite uneasy,” one resident wrote to the News + Record.
During the investigation, multiple firearms discovered with the help of The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are being processed. Police have not released any information on the men, why they were so heavily armed and what they were doing in North Carolina.
Lowery, Brown and Sheffield are scheduled to appear in court on July 19.
Reporter D. Lars Dolder can be reached at dldolder@chathamnr.com and on Twitter @dldolder.