A captain with the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office used a special maneuver to stop a vehicle involved in a police chase Thursday morning on U.S. 17.
Two sheriff's office vehicles were damaged as a result, a spokesman said, but no one was injured and the suspect was stopped before the chase reached a major intersection.
The Shallotte Police Department began pursuing a silver Mercury Mountaineer near Highlands Glen Drive in Shallotte, said Sgt. Del Routh, a spokesman for the sheriff's office. It wasn't immediately clear what prompted the chase.
The Mountaineer went north on U.S. 17 when deputies joined the pursuit and passed through one intersection, Routh said.
Brunswick County Sheriff's Capt. Sammy Turner, who was driving a marked Dodge Charger, used what's called a PIT maneuver to pull the vehicle onto the side of the road. Turner, who oversees the special operations division, teaches the PIT maneuver, which involves making controlled contact with the rear side of a vehicle to spin it around and bring it to a stop.
Turner executed the maneuver to keep the vehicle from going through the highway's intersection with N.C. 211 at Supply.
"We didn't want him to get up there and cause a major accident," Routh said.
While Turner had completed practice PIT maneuvers, Thursday was the first time he had done one in the field.
"Once you're trained, it's just another tool in our arsenal," Turner said. "It is a difficult maneuver."
Two vehicles from the sheriff's office sustained minor damage during the maneuver.
Montey Murray, 27, the driver of the Mountaineer, was charged with fleeing to elude arrest and assault on a law enforcement officer, based on him hitting a deputy's car, Routh said.
Copyright 2012 - Star-News, Wilmington, N.C.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
