Chase suspect was put on probation eight days earlier

Police arrested Brandon McDowell, of Camden Avenue, after a 30-minute chase that caused a wreck on Mineral Springs Road. Investigators said they believe McDowell stole a 1999 Acura at gunpoint from a man who had given him a ride earlier in the afternoon.

McDowell was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, felony fleeing to elude officers and larceny of a motor vehicle. He was placed in the Durham County jail under a $350,000 bond.

McDowell was sentenced May 5 to 24 months' probation after being convicted of a June 6, 2009, armed robbery in Durham, according to state Department of Correction records.

DOC records show that he had finished a yearlong prison sentence less than four months before the 2009 robbery. That sentence stemmed from convictions for hit-and-run, speeding to elude police, possession of a firearm by a felon and receiving a stolen vehicle.

Those offenses were committed within six months after McDowell finished another two-year prison sentence for violating his probation for 2004 common-law robbery and second-degree kidnapping convictions, records show.