The Big Hollywood Movie Style
Motorcycle Chase and Crash on 460

December 2010
Hello Phil....

I read the story on the pursuit that ended in Suffolk with a horrendous wreck. The author has quite a bit of the story correct but just wanted to clean up a few details as I was working that night (Suffolk PD) and responded to the scene with the dept Chaplain who was riding with me.

The guys were FAR from armed forces caliber. The rider was in fact Ricky Lamar Lewis (Google that name ref Norfolk crime) and the passenger was Anthony Burwell. They were carrying a decent size amount of drugs that were hidden in the seat area where the foam had been removed.

At the Suffolk city line Officer Sam Coco had positioned his cruiser at a 45 degree angle to block westbound traffic to avoid a head on with innocent westbound vehicle due to the motorcycle passing traffic in the westbound lanes.

When the motorcycle traveled into the westbound lanes to pass traffic again it struck Coco's cruiser in the right front door ejecting both riders; killing Burwell and injuring Lewis. The cruiser of Burrit Kittle went off the right side of the roadway and overturned with a couple other cruisers making small contact due to the abrupt end of the pursuit.

While looking at info on Lewis you'll see that he was also the subject that lit a fire at a (drug) house in Norfolk that killed two adults and two children. The embarrassing part of this story is that there were four capital murder warrants on file for him as we sat in Suffolk GD Court for the preliminary hearing and didn't know it!! He was caught later and was found guilty of our case and the arson/murder and was later killed in prison by another inmate. Justice huh.......LOL

Anyway, it makes for good reading though!!!! As most police stories do.

See ya on the highways!!!!

Jeff Reid

Hey Phil,
Your trip from Wakefield and the right turn under the railroad tracks was once a train tunnel. Sussex and South Hampton Counties use to have several lumber mills in the area big enough to have railroad spurs leading to them. I don' don't the exact history on that particular tunnel but I could find out easily. It may have run to Franklin's paper mill. I wish I still rode as I could show you some real nice scooting back country roads and I do mean nice!

The reason police on 460 are reluctant to chase scoots is because there was a chase many years ago from Prince George County that tragically ended at the city limits of Suffolk when I -295 was under construction.

The point where I -295 crossed 460 was the only place on its entire stretch that had a division of the four lanes by a Jersey Wall. At the time the two west bound lanes were shut down while the Jersey Wall was being put in place.

Two sailors on one scooter were cruising the closed section of the road, they were just goofing off while riding one evening on their way back to Norfolk. They were headed east on the west bound side with no danger to them or property. The road was paved and clear of obstacles. The two were still young and full of mischief as most of us were at their age.

A Prince George officer came up on them and pursued along side the scoot with the Blue Lights and siren wailing. The sailors had been drinking at local bar in Petersburg. Knowing they weren't supposed to be were they where, they decided to run instead of stopping and getting in trouble with the Navy as well as civilian authorities.

Soon a second Prince George officer joined in on the chase. Waverly Police monitored the radio traffic and set up a road block at their town limits. The scoot slipped through and then they had four officers on their tail.

They approached Wakefield at which point in the middle of town two Wakefield officers set up a road block in front of a local service station. One Wakefield cruiser had to throw his cruiser into reverse dumping it over an embankment at the end of a Mobile home turned into a barber shop; to avoid collision with the oncoming chase. The other Wakefield cruiser threw his cruiser into reverse and backed into the lot to avoid a collision.

One Prince George cruiser jumped the curbing and almost hit the gas pumps; the other stopped and checked on his fellow officer. They decided to quit their pursuit. Two Waverly and one Wakefield car continued the chase.

I was running about ten minutes behind the whole episode; I was coming out of Hopewell with a load of Alum headed to Portsmouth's Water Plant in Suffolk. I came across the scene at Wakefield and followed the trail they left behind. South Hampton didn't have any units in the vicinity and so when they crossed into Isle of Wright they had several units ready to join in on the chase.

The chase covered all four lanes at speeds over a hundred miles an hour and as I recall it was about 2 in the morning and luckily the road was nearly empty of traffic. About two miles east of Zuni a leisure van was forced off the road and into a telephone pole, and the two Isle of Wright units dropped out to tend to the van. They were still in there when I passed by.

Just west of Windsor a State Trooper joined in on the chase; the State Police are supposed to take control of such incidents. They ran abreast all four lanes through Windsor still over a hundred miles an hour. The State Police Dispatcher was told to order the Trooper to break off the pursuit because it was "NOT GOOD". The laws regulating high speed pursuit had been thrown out the window from the point of Waverly on.

They boxed in the scoot just east Windsor; they had to simultaneously slow down and force the scoot to also slow down and eventually to stop. The rider started kicking the door of a Waverly cruiser, so the he backed off in fear of receiving bad dents in his cruiser. In doing so he opened a hole to let the rabbit out of the snare and the high speed pursuit across all four lanes resumed. Suffolk Police monitoring the entire episode were aware of rabbit chase and it would not be permitted to enter the city limits of Suffolk as a protective measure.

From reports a total blockade of the entire road with no escape gaps in the blockade. The law requires them to prevent certain death or serious injuries which could constitute a possible liability suit for wrongful death or injuries.

I approached the City Limits of Suffolk just east of the Ye Ol Tobacco Shop which was the scene, which you can only describe as a TV movie super chase and crash scene. The Waverly car that avoided a dent in his door wound up having his cruiser totaled along with the other from Waverly. The one Wakefield cruiser wound up in the ditch upside down. All of the Isle of Wright and Suffolk cars were totaled; approximately ten police cruisers were involved.

No emergency vehicles had appeared on the scene as of yet. The officers all were either standing or walking around in a daze. There was no traffic control I just made my way around the mess on my own looking over the scene of wreckage.

On my return west bound at day break, I could see approximately a hundred yards of skid marks across the entire road, city dept workers were still cleaning debris off the road.

The sailor on the back of the scoot was reportedly beating the rider on the back; I would guess he was attempting to get the rider to stop the motorcycle before they both got killed. The rider attempted to skirt the end of a Suffolk cruiser but made contact with its bumper. The rider was thrown into a field and was not seriously injured. The passenger was thrown back onto the highway and was run over by an Isle of Wright cruiser; needless to say he was D.O.A. The rider was later convicted of man slaughter along with other various violations connected with the chase.

One of Wakefield's officers was immediately fired and the Waverly officers barely avoided being fired. The entire event was never published in the newspapers or broadcast over TV news. The whole episode was swept under the carpet with very few knowing the details or hearing anything of it.

I collected the entire story from those made privy and a business that was monitoring a police scanner throughout the entire incident combined with my personal observations as it unfolded.

The crash site at the city limits appeared unreal and as I said before, right off the movie screens.

Slick@msn.com

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