Wanted man arrested after car flips during high-speed chase in Nash, Wake counties
A wanted man was arrested early Thursday morning after officials say he he took officers on a high-speed chase that involved two counties and damaged a patrol car.
At 2 a.m., deputies with the Nash County Sheriff’s Office pulled over a rental car traveling west on U.S. 64 for a traffic violation, according to a news release.
After one deputy approached the car, the driver sped away.
The driver, 30-year-old Joe Albert Ashley Jr. of Rocky Mount, led the deputies into Wake County where he got off the highway at New Hope Road in Raleigh, the release stated.
In the chase, officers with the N.C. State Highway Patrol also joined in the pursuit to stop Ashley.
At Poole Road, Ashley tried to make a U-turn when he struck one of the patrol cars, damaging its front end, according to Maj. Eddie Moore of the Nash County Sheriff’s Office.
The collision caused Ashley’s car to overturn on the highway. He was taken to WakeMed for evaluation and then to the Nash County Detention Center in Nashville, Moore said in a phone interview with The News & Observer.
He said the entire chase lasted about 20 minutes.
Neither Ashley nor the state trooper was injured in the crash.
Fugitive charges
According to the Nash County Sheriff’s Office, Ashley has been charged with felony fleeing to elude arrest and careless and reckless driving and is being held in jail on $50,000 bail for those charges.
Ashley also has two fugitive warrants for his arrest in Virginia and Maryland on probation and drug violations, the release said. As of Thursday, Ashley he is being held in custody without bail on those charges, Moore said.
Authorities in Maryland and Virginia will now seek extradition to take Ashley into custody, Moore said.
“He will stay in Nash County until they come and get him,” he said.
