MOORESVILLE, N.C. — A 25-year-old Mooresville man is facing 10 charges, including multiple felonies, after authorities say he led officers on a high-speed pursuit on Saturday night, November 7, that began in Iredell County, reached speeds of up to 130 mph on and around Interstate 77, crossed into oncoming traffic, and ended with three police vehicles struck and one officer injured, according to court documents reported by the Charlotte Focal. Devin Valdivia was arrested on Saturday, police said. All of the charges are allegations that have not been adjudicated.
Source: Charlotte Focal, reporting court documents and police
Mooresville Police Department dispatch audio from the same night independently records the pursuit in progress: a Mooresville unit chasing a vehicle southbound on I-77 at about 100 mph toward Exit 25, reports that the suspect vehicle rammed a police car, and an officer with a broken wrist who was alert and conscious, with medical and fire crews requested near Sam Furr Road and I-77 — the same corridor, exit and officer injury described in the court documents.
Source: Mooresville Police Department dispatch audio, via CrimeRadar
How the pursuit began
The chase began on Saturday night in Iredell County after officers responded to reports of a possibly impaired driver, the Focal reported. Court documents allege Valdivia drove into oncoming traffic on Langtree Road in Mooresville and on the Statesville Highway, and struck a Mooresville police car on Langtree Road before heading south on Interstate 77. Langtree Road runs through the fast-growing Lake Norman side of Mooresville, north of Charlotte, where suburban traffic feeds directly onto I-77.
Source: Charlotte Focal, reporting court documents
Down I-77, off at Sam Furr, back on to Exit 28
From Langtree Road the pursuit went south on I-77 — the main north-south interstate through the Lake Norman towns of Mooresville, Huntersville and Cornelius, and one of the busiest commuter and freight corridors in the Charlotte region, used daily by thousands of drivers including long-haul truckers moving between Charlotte and Statesville. Valdivia exited at Sam Furr Road in Huntersville, where another collision occurred between his vehicle and a police car, the court documents say. He later returned to I-77 and took Exit 28 in Cornelius, where his vehicle was involved in another crash with a police car a short time later, according to the documents. He was arrested on Saturday, police said.
Source: Charlotte Focal, reporting court documents
The dispatch record fills in the radio picture from inside that pursuit: units tracking the vehicle southbound on I-77 at speed, a report that it had rammed a police car, stop sticks being readied near Hambright Road, and then the call for medical help for the injured officer near Sam Furr Road. The officer's injury is described in the court documents as a fractured bone in the hand suffered when his cruiser was hit; the dispatch audio described the injury as a broken wrist and said the officer was alert and conscious.
Source: Mooresville Police Department dispatch audio, via CrimeRadar
The charges
The 10 charges include felony fleeing to elude arrest, felony assault on a law enforcement officer, driving while impaired, resisting a public officer, felony damage to property and several traffic offences, the Focal reported from the court documents. Fleeing to elude and assaulting an officer are the counts that carry the case's felony weight; the driving-while-impaired charge reflects the reports of a possibly impaired driver that started the encounter. Awaaz Punjab stresses that these are charges, not findings: Valdivia has not been convicted of any of them, and the case remains pending.
Source: Charlotte Focal, reporting court documents
A record that includes fleeing police before
Arrest records cited by the Focal show Valdivia has prior convictions in neighbouring Lincoln County for assault on a government official and for attempted fleeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle — the same two kinds of conduct alleged again on Saturday night. Those are past convictions recorded in the arrest records, separate from the new allegations, which a court has yet to test.
Source: Charlotte Focal, reporting arrest records
Why an I-77 pursuit is so dangerous
Interstate 77 through Lake Norman is a corridor where a wrong-way or oncoming-traffic manoeuvre puts far more than the fleeing driver at risk: it mixes fast commuter traffic, local drivers entering and leaving at closely spaced exits such as Sam Furr Road and Exit 28, and heavy trucks on one of the Charlotte region's principal freight routes. Court documents allege Valdivia crossed into oncoming traffic twice — on Langtree Road and on the Statesville Highway — before the interstate leg of the chase, and that three separate collisions with police vehicles followed. That no bystander was reported injured is the outcome officers on the radio that night were working to protect, including the decision points audible in the dispatch record as units weighed how to stop the vehicle.
Source: Mooresville Police Department dispatch audio, via CrimeRadar
Valdivia's case now moves through the courts on the 10 charges, which remain allegations until adjudicated. No court date was given in the reporting. The injured officer's recovery has not been updated by police in the sources available; the last word from the night itself was that he was alert and conscious with a fractured hand.
Awaaz Punjab will update this story when court proceedings set the next step in the case or police release further information about the pursuit and the injured officer.
Source: Charlotte Focal