ROCKINGHAM — A suspect in an alleged road rage incident led police officers on a car chase through a residential area, smashing through mailboxes and parked vehicles, before attempting to flee on foot Thursday morning.

A 911 caller described a driver in the U.S. 1 South area trying to run them off the road while wielding a firearm, according to a Friday press release from the Rockingham Police Department. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle but the driver refused, instead leading — by witness accounts — at least five police cruisers in a pursuit.

The driver led the officers down Rockingham Road, turning left at McArthur Drive where he clipped two vehicles and destroyed a mailbox on the property of Clay Pegram after a wide turn before turning left on Marshall Avenue, leaving oil and debris in his wake, according to Pegram who was in his home at the time.

Police said the driver continued to Hood Street before bringing the vehicle to a stop and fleeing on foot when he was arrested. Two passengers remained in the vehicle. The driver was identified as 24-year-old Dominique Dontae Everett, of Rockingham.

Pegram said he heard a “horrible noise” around 10 a.m. that he initially thought was a garbage truck until his neighbor banged on his door telling him “Man, you got to get out here.”

Pegram often repairs friends’ cars, and has several vehicles in his yard. Everett struck a blue pickup parked on Pegram’s property, pushing it over a small tree and into a white Volkswagen, also knocking an engine off of its blocks. Pegram said he would have been working underneath his son’s silver pickup when it was struck had he not gone back indoors briefly.

A city employee who was working in the area said he had to make sure his coworkers were out of the road when they heard the sirens around them. “(Everett) really took ‘em on a chase!” he said.

Everett is charged with one felony count each of fleeing to elude arrest, larceny of a motor vehicle, possession with intent to sell or deliver marijuana and maintaining a vehicle for a controlled substance; two misdemeanor counts of injury to real property and injury to personal property; one misdemeanor count each of possession of marijuana, possession of marijuana paraphernalia and resisting a public officer; and two traffic violations — reckless driving to endanger and driving with a limited or revoked license.

He was also charged with a single count of misdemeanor larceny from the Rockingham Walmart in 2016.

Everett was booked into the Richmond County Jail under a $251,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court April 12.

Online court records show Everett is facing pending charges in Durham County — two counts each of selling marijuana, delivering marijuana and possession with intent to sell or deliver marijuana, one count of felony possession of marijuana and one misdemeanor count of possession of marijuana paraphernalia — and a misdemeanor larceny charge in Wake County.

He also has pending felony charges of having a gun on educational property and violating probation in Durham County Superior Court.

He has not previously been incarcerated, though records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction show he was convicted of two misdemeanors charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a place for a controlled substance in 2011, and one felony count of possession of a weapon on a school campus in 2015. He received probation for both charges.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or [email protected].

Gavin Stone | Daily Journal Two trucks, a mailbox and fence were damaged Thursday morning when police say Dominique Everett led them on a chase through several residential streets.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_chase_wreck.jpgGavin Stone | Daily Journal Two trucks, a mailbox and fence were damaged Thursday morning when police say Dominique Everett led them on a chase through several residential streets.
Trucks, fence damaged in pursuit

By Gavin Stone

Staff Writer