A Greene County deputy was killed Thursday night when a patrol car went out of control during a vehicle pursuit near Snow Hill. The sheriff's office had not released the deputy's name by Friday, and investigators have not said why the chase began.
The pursuit started with Farmville police and crossed into Greene County on N.C. 258 North, about a 70-mile drive southeast of downtown Raleigh. Deputies were called to assist shortly before 8:30 p.m., WITN and WCTI reported, citing the sheriff's office.
The Chase On N.C. 258
One deputy caught up with the suspect vehicle near N.C. 258 and N.C. 123. A second deputy was trying to catch up with that deputy and the suspect on N.C. 258, north of the N.C. 13 intersection, when the patrol car left the driver's control.
The crash killed the deputy. The sheriff's office described the death as a fatal injury in the wreck, not as a collision with the suspect's vehicle.
The suspect's vehicle later crashed on Dixon Farm Road. The suspect was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. No name, specific charge or court date has been released.
Who Handles What Next
Farmville police will handle charges related to the chase. The North Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating both crashes — the patrol car wreck and the later crash on Dixon Farm Road.
That split leaves the original pursuit with the department that started it and the crash reconstruction with the Highway Patrol. As of Friday's reports, the sheriff's office still had not identified the deputy who died.
A Deadly Pattern On State Roads
The Greene County crash lands in a period when North Carolina pursuit deaths have climbed. Law enforcement pursuits claimed at least 42 lives on state roadways in 2024, more than double the toll in each year from 2018 through 2021, the Greensboro News & Record reported. Those chases were sparked by offenses ranging from speeding to a missing license plate.
Highway Patrol pursuits rose from 454 in 2019 to 1,061 in 2022, an increase of more than 130%, according to WRAL. In that agency's own 2022 pursuits, 13 people were seriously hurt and seven died. A separate statewide count found 24 people killed in chases across North Carolina that year, and half of them — 12 — were bystanders, WRAL reported. Those are different scopes, not the same tally.
The Patrol's 2021 review found 238 of 896 pursuits, or 27%, fell outside agency policy. Speeding was the reported reason for 63% of its pursuits that year. None of those figures describes Thursday's chase. Investigators have not released the reason Farmville police began pursuing the vehicle that entered Greene County.
What is established is narrower, and still unfinished: a deputy is dead, a suspect is hospitalized with serious injuries, Farmville police are preparing charges, and the Highway Patrol is investigating both wrecks.
