Have been reporting on this since just after 5 PM until incident passed outof Vance County, two counties north of here. Started in Raleigh, went to Chapel Hill, back through Durham, over Falls Lake northwards, ended some few miles over the Virginia line. Believe the VA cops used stop sticks and a smoke bomb, not sure. Subject had forced ex-wife to drive at gunpoint. Could see him sitting there with gun pointed at her head. Subject was firing at police and HP helicopter. When chase ended subject ran off into woods, footchase is in progress, he's firing at police. Do not know what has happened to the victim. (Their children were let out at the beginning of the incident.) Local news choppers were able to follow to the end of the chase, although not the capture, guess they were running out of gas. Fox has been carrying it.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2002

Answers

Looks as if the last part of the reports was wrong:

Man, hostage dead after pursuit The Herald-Sun Sep 24, 2002 : 1:33 am ET

WARFIELD, Va. -- A man kidnapped his ex-wife Monday and fled to Virginia in his pickup truck, firing at police and other motorists before killing the woman and then himself, authorities said.

The man was identified as Roberto Campos, 26 or 29 years old, who police say drove up from Florida on Monday to kidnap Lourdes Guzman, 25, and two children he fathered with her. Although one police spokesman said the couple got divorced about five years ago, another said Guzman was Campos’ ex-girlfriend.

Campos took the woman and children at a Raleigh intersection late Monday afternoon. Witnesses told police that he held a gun to Guzman’s head as they drove away, with her behind the wheel. The truck stopped a short time later to let out the children, a boy and girl, ages 4 and 7.

Police cars and a state Highway Patrol helicopter followed the white Toyota pickup truck across several counties in two states, traveling at first on Interstate 40 from Raleigh to Durham and past Chapel Hill, then back toward Durham on Interstate 85 before heading north into Virginia.

During the nearly three-hour chase, Campos fired at police and other motorists but no one was wounded, Highway Patrol Sgt. J.B. Blackman said.

"He has shot at civilians on the interstate as they were pulling off the right side of the road," Blackman said.

North Carolina authorities took a hands-off approach to the chase, trailing the driver by several hundred feet. But when the chase crossed into Virginia, troopers employed "stop-sticks" to puncture the trucks tires, forcing the driver to stop about 7:45 p.m. in Brunswick County, Va., approximately 80 miles north of Raleigh.

Lt. Col. Gerald Massengill of the Virginia State Police said the agency had made a decision to stop the truck before it got to Interstate 95, about 30 miles away.

After the truck’s tires blew, it went off the side of the road and into some trees, landing on its side.

Police following close behind heard three shots.

They got up to the truck and found both Campos and Guzman slumped in the front seat, dead.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the man shot the woman, then killed himself.

Guzman had remarried and had two more children with her new husband. Police said the man resided in Florida, but did not know his hometown.

The two children released from the car were in police custody.

The chase attracted many onlookers.

Angela Garrett, of South Hill, and her children counted 23 police cars as they watched from the last overpass in North Carolina.

"This is kind of like history in the makings for the kids," she said. "But then after I brought them up here, I thought I might be putting them in harm’s way. I just hope they stop them OK."

-- Anonymous, September 24, 2002

This is such a shame. I feel for the children, as now they do not have a mother.

Strange, but sometimes I can visualize my ex doing something this stupid.

-- Anonymous, September 24, 2002