By Emmy Errante and Miriah Hamrick
Staff Writers
Three Washington, D.C., men were arrested by Wilmington Police Department following a high-speed chase ending in a five-vehicle crash at the intersection of Eastwood Road and Wrightsville Avenue Monday, March 23.
Jimmy Cox, 23, Brenton Jenkins, 18, and Darrick Lee Jones, 42, were arrested and charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon and second degree kidnapping.
Cox is being held in New Hanover County Jail on a $1.01 million bond; Jenkins is being held in NHC Jail on a $1.005 million bond. Jones has not yet been processed through the court system. More charges could be brought against the trio.
Police responded to the Bank of America on North Front Street at 9:17 a.m., where two suspects “brandished a bladed instrument and demanded money from a bank teller,” Wilmington police said. A third suspect drove the robbers in a dark-colored Toyota, which police pursued from Third Street north and east on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to the car’s resting place on Wrightsville Avenue, between Canal Street and Airlie Road.
The chase lasted approximately six minutes, ending when the suspects’ vehicle sideswiped a van turning into the intersection at Wrightsville Avenue and Eastwood Road, triggering a chain of collisions in both directions of the five-lane divided roadway.
At the time of the crash eyewitness David Branch had approached the intersection from the east and was sitting at the light. From his point of view he saw blue lights behind a vehicle he estimated to be traveling 80 to 100 miles an hour, he said.
“Then I notice that they were going to run this red light,” Branch said during a March 24 phone interview, “and I saw the van pulling out; and I saw before it happened that the car was going to hit that van, so I turned my car to the right. I knew if the car hit that van it was going to hit me head on.”
Branch turned his car to the right, sidling next to the car in the lane beside him. Meanwhile the fleeing vehicle hit the van, lost control and headed for Branch’s vehicle.
“It scraped the side of my car and kind of pushed me into the other car, and then the car behind me; and it hit the median and flew up 10 feet in the air and split in half. I pulled to the side of the road and saw a guy get out and run,” Branch said.
Police reports verify, after the collision, two suspects attempted to flee the scene but were arrested. The suspects were treated at New Hanover Regional Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries. Wilmington Police Department spokesperson Cathryn Lindsay said no other people involved in the wrecks reported any significant injuries.
“Everybody there was extremely lucky today,” Lindsay said. “The vehicle suspects were driving was split in two pieces, with tires and car parts strewn across both eastbound and westbound lanes of Wrightsville Avenue between Canal Street and Airlie Road.
Lumina News reporters heard the crash from their offices at 7232 Wrightsville Ave. and witnessed police officers handcuff two men as construction workers pointed in the direction a third man ran. Paramedics were also on the scene.
The intersection, strewn with pieces of the vehicle and money from the bank bag ejected from the car, was taped off.
Wrightsville Beach resident Lesli Musselwhite said she was traveling eastbound on Eastwood Road when she heard the sound of the crash behind her. When she looked back, she saw debris flying over her car.
“First I heard what sounded like an explosion, and immediately, a piece of a car and tires and debris flew right behind me — I mean, I could see it in my rearview mirror,” she said. “… I stopped, because I could see that it was an automobile and I thought, there’s just been a really bad accident. I stopped thinking I might need to call 911, or go help somebody, and then I saw blue lights.”
By 11:30 a.m., most of the debris from the collisions was cleared from the road. By noon, Monday, March 23, all lanes on Wrightsville Avenue were open.
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