Still cannot totally wrap my ahead around the received facts of the incident which left Latia Winchester, 25, dead after a car fleeing a NC Highway Patrol checkpoint smashed into her car Saturday night.

What we have been told:

  • The SHP set a “routine” license checkpoint at 30th Street and The Plaza
  • Eddie Bernard Ellison, 41, was traveling north on The Plaza, saw the checkpoint, U-turned, and fled
  • A trooper gave chase down The Plaza, which turns into Parkwood Ave.
  • Within blocks Ellison’s vehicle struck Winchester’s at the Parkwood and N. Davidson intersection

Now the questions.

There is no intersection of 30th Street and The Plaza; 30th turns into Matheson Ave. when it crosses Tryon St. and then a few blocks later it hits The Plaza. Is it really “routine” for the SHP to run not just checkpoints deep within the city limits on city streets, but to man them with pursuit vehicles? That would have to qualify as news to me.

A checkpoint at 30th and Tryon I might understand, as US 29/49 is technically state/federal highway. But it has always been my understanding that local law enforcement is responsible for policing the local roads — unless they request help. So did CMPD request that SHP set up and man a checkpoint on The Plaza? Did CMPD in any way approve in advance the checkpoint? Or did the SHP simply announce, “Hey, we’re running a checkpoint in the middle of town tonite. See ya.”

Did any other LEA — such as ALE — request the checkpoint?