Driver in custody after police pursuit of stolen car through Wake, Durham counties

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Wake County Sheriff's Office said a man was taken into custody after leading law enforcement officers on a pursuit involving a stolen car.

On Wednesday, around 1:40 p.m., deputies spotted a reported stolen vehicle and tried to pull it over near Louis Stephens Drive and Morrisville Parkway. The driver did not stop.

Deputies pursued the car onto I-40 W, I-885, NC-147, and onto surface streets in Durham.

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol got involved and chased the driver to Medical Park Drive in Durham, where the driver stopped the car and ran off. A juvenile passenger also got out and ran a short distance before stopping.

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Deputies detained the passenger, who was not expected to face a juvenile petition, the sheriff's office told ABC11.

The Durham County Sheriff's Office and the Durham Police Department joined troopers and deputies in the search for the driver near Sudbury Road, not far from Duke Regional Hospital.

The driver, identified as Zakaree Johnson, 18, was eventually found and taken into custody near Ben Franklin Boulevard.

Johnson was charged with flee to elude arrest, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, hit and run leaving the scene, reckless driving to endanger, resisting public officer, no operators license, and possession of stolen goods/property.

The incident was one of three pursuits in the Triangle on Wednesday. One began around 6:15 a.m. in Wake County and ended 14 miles away when the driver crashed the car in a ditch near Sherron Road in Durham.

The other chase ended on Spectrum Drive near Knightdale. A driver eventually hit two sheriff's office vehicles before being taken into custody.

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