One reason they run from the cops...

[PeteSC]

One arrested, one sought after Wednesday chase



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By JEFFERSON WEAVER, Staff Writer
A Fayetteville man was jailed Wednesday after two motorcyclists allegedly led police on a wild chase through Elizabethtown and up N.C. 87.

One of the bikers escaped, and two female passengers were unharmed.

Elizabethtown Police Chief Bobby Kinlaw said Antonio Reginald McReynolds, 20, of Fayetteville, was jailed under a $50,000 bond Wednesday afternoon.

McReynolds is charged with multiple traffic violations, including failure to stop for a blue light, eluding arrest, and driving in excess of 100 miles per hour. He is also charged with felonious possession of a stolen motorcycle.

Kinlaw said Lt. Gary Britt was on routine patrol in downtown Elizabethtown when he spotted McReynolds and another motorcyclist driving erratically. Britt followed the bike to a restaurant, where the riders dismounted.

One of the motorcycles had no license plate, Kinlaw said, and the other was illegible.

While Britt was pulling into the parking lot behind the motorcyclists, they allegedly pulled out into traffic and began speeding toward the bypass, Kinlaw said.

Britt called for backup, and police and Bladen County Sheriff's Deputies followed the motorcyclists to N.C. 41 West, near Dublin.

McReynolds pulled off at the Bo-Mar distributing warehouse. Britt and Det. Chris Robeson took McReynolds and a female passenger into custody there.

Officers lost the second bike when the driver passed a stopped school bus and disappeared in traffic.

"The officer was not going to pass a stopped school bus," Kinlaw said. "The chase had become far too dangerous at that point."

Chief Deputy Phillip Little of the Bladen County Sheriff's department detained the female passenger of the second motorcycle at Bladen Community College.

The driver of the second motorcycle was last seen on Tar Heel Ferry Road headed for River Road.

Neither woman was charged in the incident, Kinlaw said. Both were questioned and released.

The 2001 Kawasaki McReynolds was operating was reported stolen from Colonial Heights, Va., in 2002.

Other charges may be pending in the case, Kinlaw said.

A number of officers from several law enforcement agencies assisted in the chase.

Kinlaw said the driver of the second bike is still being sought. Anyone with any information in the case is asked to call 862-3125.