A Fuquay-Varina man was charged with murder Monday after he allegedly struck and killed a teen with his car while chasing the boy to recover a swiped cell phone, authorities said.
David Wendell Dixon, 27, was being held at the Wake County Detention Center without bond in connection with the early morning death of Monterio Devon Whitehead, 16, law enforcement officials said.
Other WRAL Top Stories
Around 2 a.m., officers with the Fuquay-Varina Police Department responded to a call of a "suspicious person" at a home at 727 E. Broad St., where they found the body of the victim.
Investigators said Whitehead approached Dixon in the parking lot of a Walmart in Fuquay-Varina and asked to use Dixon's cell phone.
Dixon allowed Whitehead to use the cell phone, but during the exchange, police said, Whitehead ran from Dixon's car with the phone. Dixon chased Whitehead from the Walmart parking lot to the Home Depot parking lot in his car.
Dixon drove his vehicle over a parking lot curb and onto the property at 727 E. Broad St. He went through a tree line and down a hill before he struck and ran over Whitehead, authorities said. A woman who lives at the home told WRAL News that she heard a loud noise and looked outside her window and saw Dixon's car.
According to officials with Wake County schools, Whitehead was a freshman at SCORE Academy.
Dixon and Whitehead apparently did not know each other before the incident.