Man Tasered, arrested after high speed chase through Kinston

A routine traffic stop quickly escalated into a 4-mile high speed chase and ended up resulting in the Tasering and arrest of a Kinston man late Saturday night.

What made the chase more dramatic - even though speeds reached more than 100 miles per hour through Kinston - was the fact that the arrested man had two children in the vehicle with him.

Kinston Public Safety Officer J. Eubanks attempted to stop a 1993 two-door Mitsubishi Eclipse driven by Daniel Lee Hilliard, 37, of 1301 Morningside Drive, for a non-working headlight and possible DWI near the intersection of Vernon Ave. and East Street. When Eubanks activated his blue lights, though, Hilliard attempted to flee from the police, turning right on Queen Street.

With Eubanks' cruiser in pursuit, Hilliard pushed the Eclipse to speeds of more than 100 miles per hour in the 35-mph speed zone on Queen Street. Hilliard also turned his headlights off in an attempt to lose Eubanks and other Kinston police vehicles that joined the pursuit.

"We were very concerned with this situation, since he could run into someone with no headlights on," Kinston Cmdr. Randy Askew said. "We followed him to make sure the public would be safe."

Soon thereafter, Kinston police realized there were children in the car.

"I can't believe he ran that hard with kids in his car," Askew said.

After passing Kinston High School and Cunningham Road, Hilliard turned left onto Briary Road and then onto Lane Street, where his car stopped. Lenoir County Sheriff's Officers also joined in the pursuit.

"It appeared that he blew his car's engine," Eubanks said.

Hilliard jumped out of the car on Lane Street and, instead of running into the nearby woods, ran towards Eubanks, who activated his Taser. The stun gun stopped Hilliard in his tracks and he was placed under arrest by Eubanks.

"The Taser was very effective," Eubanks said.

When officers searched Hilliard's car, they discovered a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old in child seats in the back seat of the Eclipse. They also found cocaine and marijuana.

Hilliard is facing felony charges of possession of cocaine, child abuse and eluding arrest. He is also charged with one count of aggravated possession of marijuana. Eubanks also indicated that Hilliard would be facing multiple traffic offenses.

Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at (252) 559-1073 or at bhanks@freedomenc.com. Check out Bryan's blog at http://bhanks.encblogs.com.