Police seek driver in chase

RALEIGH -- Police were still looking Wednesday for the driver of a car who led them on a chase across Southeast Raleigh on Tuesday night.

Officers initially said that they'd arrested two of three people who were in the car that crashed about 8:30 p.m.

On Wednesday they said that only two men had been in the car and that just one of them was arrested. Dakarai Raquan McGowan, 16, is charged with armed robbery, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and possession of stolen goods.

In a news release, police said the events leading to the chase began late Monday night, when a man was showing off his car. Dieudonne Zodulua told officers he was showing his 2000 Ford Focus to various people at his home on Presley Court when a woman got in and drove off.

Zodulua reported the theft to officers six hours later, about 5 a.m. Tuesday. It wasn't clear why Zodulua waited to report the theft, but a police spokesman said he might have been trying to get the car back on his own.

Later Tuesday, Zodulua saw two people he thought were involved with the theft at an apartment complex on Orchard Hollow Lane. Those two people -- who were not named -- went into an apartment, and two men came out.

One of them had a pistol and hit Zodulua with it, the news release said, and Zodulua also was kicked and punched. He fled and called 911, spokesman Jim Sughrue said. He was not seriously injured.

Using a broadcast description of the car, Officer M.F. Schabel spotted it at Martin Luther King and Raleigh boulevards and tried to stop it, leading to the chase.

The pursuit ended when the car crashed into trees at the dead-end of East Lenoir Street, and the driver fled, according to a wreck report. Officers called in dogs and a state Highway Patrol helicopter to try to find him.

Police did not release the name of the man they think was driving the car, but arrest warrants for two other suspects accuse them and McGowan of conspiring with someone called "Ricky" and an unnamed juvenile suspect.

Arrest warrants issued Wednesday show police have arrested two 16-year-old girls in connection with the theft of Zodulua's car. Ashley Briana Brown of 1911-104 Orchard Hollow Lane, and Ashley Lecole Southerland of 2001-101 Orchard Hollow Lane are each charged with one count each of felony larceny and conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

Brown and Southerland were being held in the Wake County jail in lieu of $5,000 bail.