DURHAM, North Carolina — Durham police have arrested an Apex man and charged him with felony hit-and-run causing death in the October 18 crash on the Durham Freeway that killed Rakesh Babu Poojari, 37, as he stood on the shoulder checking a flat tire — ending, police say, a search that began with a single Nissan emblem recovered at the scene.
Source: The News & Observer
Julien Kuttummel Varkey Joseph, 48, of Apex, was arrested on Tuesday, November 3, according to a Durham Police Department news release reported by The News & Observer. Police say Joseph is the driver who struck Poojari on southbound N.C. 147 — the Durham Freeway — near Fayetteville Street at about 10 p.m. on Sunday, October 18, and did not stop. Poojari died at the scene. The charge is an accusation only: Joseph is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.
Joseph's arrest warrant alleges that he struck Poojari with a 2015 Nissan Altima, then drove an estimated 12 more miles before calling his wife and then calling 911, according to The News & Observer's account of the warrant. The warrant says a state trooper responded to Joseph's location and wrote a report in which Joseph said he had struck a deer. Awaaz Punjab is reporting that sequence as what the warrant alleges, not as an established fact — it will be for a Durham County court to test it.
How the investigation reached an arrest
For the first ten days, investigators had a scene, a dead man and a car part. On Wednesday, October 28, Durham police publicly asked for help finding a Nissan sedan or smaller SUV with heavy damage to its front bumper, hood and windshield, telling the public that officers had recovered the car's front Nissan emblem at the scene. ABC11, CBS 17 and WRAL all carried that appeal, and Durham CrimeStoppers offered a reward of up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrest.
Six days after that appeal, police announced the arrest. The department has not publicly described which tip, record or piece of evidence connected the 2015 Altima in the warrant to the vehicle described in the October 28 appeal, and it has not announced any additional charges or any second suspect. What is confirmed comes from three places that agree with each other: the Durham Police Department news release announcing the arrest and charge, the arrest warrant's allegations about the Altima and the 12-mile drive, and Durham County court records showing the bond and the first court date.
Confirmed by police and court records: Poojari, 37, was struck and killed on the N.C. 147 shoulder near Fayetteville Street at about 10 p.m. on Oct. 18 while checking a flat tire; Joseph, 48, of Apex was arrested Nov. 3 and charged with felony hit-and-run causing death; he posted a $100,000 unsecured bond and his first court appearance was set for the morning of Nov. 4. Alleged in the warrant only: that his Altima struck Poojari, that he drove about 12 more miles, and that he told a trooper he had hit a deer.
Why a flat tire on this freeway is so dangerous
N.C. 147, the Durham Freeway, is the main highway spine through Durham, carrying traffic between downtown, Duke University and the Research Triangle's I-40 corridor. Its shoulder near Fayetteville Street is a narrow strip beside fast southbound lanes, and the crash happened at about 10 p.m., in darkness. Every professional driver — and the Triangle's large community of South Asian and Punjabi families, many of them in Apex, Cary, Morrisville and Durham itself, know this road well — understands the risk in that scene: a driver out of his car, at night, beside live lanes, with a flat tire. Police have not said whether Poojari had hazard lights on, whether a warning triangle was out, or how fast the striking car was travelling, and Awaaz Punjab is not guessing at any of those details.
Apex, where the accused lives, is a fast-growing Wake County town southwest of Raleigh, roughly a half-hour's drive from the crash scene in ordinary traffic — part of the same Raleigh-Durham commuting region. That geography is why this case has been followed closely across the Triangle: the victim died on a road thousands of local families drive every day, and the man accused of leaving him there was arrested in one of its own suburbs.
What happens next
Joseph's first court appearance was set for Wednesday morning, November 4, in Durham County, after he posted the $100,000 unsecured bond on Tuesday — an unsecured bond means he was released on his signed promise to pay that amount if he fails to appear, rather than paying it up front. No next hearing date, plea or statement from Joseph or any lawyer for him was reported in the coverage of the arrest. The investigation is not formally closed to new information: Durham police are still asking anyone with information to contact Investigator D.A. Monroe at 919-560-4935, extension 29450, or Durham CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200.