On July 14, police charged a Virginia Beach man with several offenses, including abduction and driving under the influence, after a chase that spanned multiple cities and eventually ended with a crash in Newport News.
After the crash, 43-year-old Danny Jo Hedrick received transport to Riverside Regional Medical Center. As of July 15, he was being held in the Newport News City Jail.
Police charged Hedrick with abduction, firearm use, possession of firearm by a felon, felon habitual offender, felony evading, DUI, and several other offenses, including two separate collisions with Virginia State Police cars, according to Chesapeake police spokeswoman Dorienne Boykin.
Hedrick was the only person to suffer injuries in the chase, which began in Chesapeake and ran through Norfolk, Hampton, and Newport News.
At approximately 11:15 p.m., police spotted a Ford Explorer leaving the parking lot of the Tinee Giant in Chesapeake with a defective tail light. Boykin said that the officer saw the vehicle run over a concrete barrier as it was leaving the parking lot. She said the officer then saw the vehicle run a red light and increase its speed. She said the officer believed the driver to be intoxicated.
An officer was not able to stop the Explorer at the intersection and Old Atlantic Avenue in Chesapeake. The vehicle stopped to allow a 32-year-old man at the intersection of Ohio Street and Chesapeake Driver.
The man who exited the vehicle said that he met Hedrick for the first time when he asked him for a ride from the Tinee Giant, according to Boykin. Police say that at first, Hedrick would not allow the man to get out and pointed a gun at him during his time in the vehicle.
The chase went along Interstates 464, 264, and 64 before Hedrick finally lost control and crashed the Explorer at the Jefferson Avenue exit on I-64 in Newport News.
