Speaker Tim Moore credits driver with staying calm as car rammed them from behind

There along with Representative David Willis was with me uh

Dan Gurley whose deputy chief of staff and then Officer

Jason Perdue who was driving who was our general police

officer assigned to us

And uh coming down the highway and this fella uh

we're going to highway speeds came up behind us a

high rate of speed and rammed into the back of

us

Uh once then hit again then hit at least a

third time maybe even 1/4 time

Um officer turned on the blue lights at that point

Then the guy goes around us

Um we fell back followed him calling it into highway

patrol and the other agencies

Um fellow then drives for I don't know maybe 56

miles literally stops in the left lane and then kind

of pulls off to the side onto the side there

were there and waiting a few minutes after that highway

patrol officer shows up and then not long a lot

more troopers wake county Sheriff show up and then they

end up arresting the guy

They actually took him in in an ambulance I'm informed

And I believe the statements already out that he's been

charged with impaired driving

You can imagine though when we're driving in the vehicle

it's a it's an unmarked police Tahoe that we have

here and we're traveling you can imagine on the interstate

many of us have been rear ended by a car

unfortunately in the past but normally that happens on the

street or happens that when folks are stopping But when

you're moving at highway speeds and another car approaches you

at a higher rate of speed and then hits the

car not once not twice but three times

You can imagine the kinds of things that are going

through your mind at that point that it's intention

Uh but fortunately you know I tell you officer Purdue

did an amazing job keeping control of the car

It was you know had it been somebody without experiencing

that car could have read could've flipped You never know

what could have happened

Um situation was handled

Police responded well you know just I'm just glad everybody's

okay

Um and so we'll we'll have to see what happened

I'm told though that that that the fellow was charged

with D

W

I

That he was impaired when he was driving they seem

to think that it was my understanding is some sort

of drugs of some kind but just a bizarre situation

But at the end and the end of the day

just glad that nobody was hurt

No I don't I don't believe we were targeted

I will tell you at the time it was happening

but certainly certainly felt that way

But when he you know kind of seeing everything after

the fact with the fact that he was he was

impaired and and and all those circumstances it I don't

think I don't think it was targeted

So I mean oddly enough if he had to hit

a car it's probably good

He hit us instead of you know somebody who's got

trained law enforcement driving and driving the vehicle instead of

just you know the young driver an elderly driver who

knows uh because you know getting hit I've talked to

a couple of police officers since and that that hit

that at that speed of a car

And I've seen this could make a car spin out

flip over all kinds of bad stuff

So thank God we're all just all right

It was when he hit it he hit it really

hard it jolted but it also kind of got a

little squirrely

I mean it didn't just it wasn't just like a

straight hit and move forward

I mean it got a little squirrely but Purdue kept

it under control and kept kept kept calm

And so but they said the guy hit us three

times and when he turned on the blue lights in

the car you wouldn't know it was a police car

unless you let's see that uh guy goes around us

and fell behind followed and I wouldn't say it's a

high speed chase or anything like that but it was

highway speeds

But then but then what was interesting and I just

thought about this is there was another car ahead of

him in the left lane and he kind of recklessly

went around that car and then like you know just

kind of just like he was I think we were

the first thing that he hit that slowed him down

I don't know the truth but he just kept going

I don't know if he knew what he was doing

but he certainly shouldn't have been on the way we

were in the right way the right way

So we were in the right lane and then he

went to the left and then we fell behind on

the left

As I can remember

You can imagine these things happened really fast

Uh And of course sirens on blue lights all that

we're trying to get the highway patrol and the other

folks that we get involved

So what made him stop and love I don't know

So what he actually did not only did he stopped

he stopped in the middle of highway and he stopped

in the left bound lane of 64 or 87 whatever

it's called there

And then finally kind of pulled off to the shoulder

and just sat there

So at that time were thinking okay was this intentional

What what's gonna happen now Right this guy stopped and

he just stayed in his truck the whole time

And then a few minutes later when we had the

first troop and then a few minutes after that there's

I don't know how many officers there but it was

a lot and I gotta say they did an amazing

job

Uh he was on the phone I was on the

phone and I don't know maybe dan was on the

phone too

I think three of us called on the on the

phone and one of the yeah something like that

Yeah four yeah uh represent Wilson in the back and

was in the front uh and then uh he was

driving Uh what I asked him he said he saw

some lights approaching fast then the lights disappeared which meant

the guy was and then and then he hit us

I mean it was it was that quick so I

don't know I don't want to estimate how fast he

was going to be

We were going at highway speeds in the 79 hours

on and this guy was on us in no time

And you know the first hit

That was strange enough the second and the third hit

you're feeling like who is this is this somebody trying

to run you off the road And so that's that's

what got everybody obviously a little uh excited at that

point

But he uh I don't know that he I doubt

he knew who we were

I don't know what's in the man's mind but it

sounds like he was impaired and you and you know

I'm told he resisted arrest and I'm told he's right

now already out of jail on unsecured bond

No we don't know I have no reason at all

to think that he knew who I was or or

any of us in the car or even that it

was you know any kind of law enforcement

Uh well I don't I don't want to second guess

anything it happens but it just you know I'm a

lawyer when I'm not here

Um and and my experience in my part of the

state is if someone did something like this they would

generally be held on some kind of secured bond particularly

where they understand resisted a police officer

I mean there was clearly some property damage

I don't you know if the guy's got some sort

of drug issue probably need some help with that certainly

doesn't need just to be thrown back out on the

street I would say

But uh that's that's a little above my ability to

comment on

But we went to we had a workforce event at

the at Wilson Community College

It's actually a I was hoping I was gonna be

talking about that

So this right

But they have an amazing program they're doing right now

in partnership with they have an early college high school

and then they have an apprenticeship program with a number

of companies

And so they it's a very creative way that they're

working on

So they were having a job fair that day

So we met with a number of folks there from

that were there from Companies folks College working through that

program because those are the kinds of things and we're

talking about workforce we're trying to promote and trying to

expand upon in the state

So we we met with them went through that

We then also went uh and representing fontenot was with

us for all this

Uh we then went downtown

They had this uh Downtown Wilson is going through a

bit of a revitalization and they've taken an old building

there and they've renovated it to some it's got shared

workspace kind of project incubator

We did some state appropriations a couple years ago to

help out that

We met with them met with some of the folks

who used it getting some information on that

We then went and you'll see this on my social

media went to the whirly gig park to see that

See some of the revitalization went out there and saw

that one uh then represented had a had a campaign

reception for about 45 minutes at the Elks Lodge went

to that met with him had a number of local

officials of that as well

Number City Council members

Then after that we had a dinner with a veteran's

advocacy group the Independence Fund that was set up to

talk about some policy and issues that you will be

hearing about later on some things to do for a

number of our veterans and for folks who uh served

with us y'all remember the situation of the uh interpreters

who were in Afghanistan who came back

They worked with a lot of those folks helping get

those folks that worked with us that were embedded with

us resettled and connected with jobs and careers

We were meeting with them about some of their initiatives

So after that had been a great day we're coming

home and then uh all the events I described earlier

unfolded after that

Yeah it was uh as far as the exact like

exit numbers somebody says like maybe exit 13 or mile

marker 13 where we were hit and I think we

were I remember this there's a sign that says exit

71 mile and then there's one of those you know

the information boards they tell you like the amber alerts

and those sort of things

It was one of those where we stopped that was

like right there ahead of us

Yeah so so so probably about probably 6 7 miles

after that I guess

I might I'm not sure where it is

It's one it's one of the black Tahoes

I mean it might be downstairs it may be off

site

I don't know they may be getting it may have

it at the body shop

Uh it's the damage

I mean it's a it's in the rear but it's

the rear bumper

I would have thought from the way the hit was

it I would have thought the back end would have

been just crushed in or something but it's actually doesn't

if you just look at it it doesn't look that

bad

I don't but you know the cars now sometimes you

have frame damage I don't know but you can see

on the bumper where it got hit there but it

didn't it wasn't like all mangled up it was driving

and everything we uh officer produced stayed there and then

uh how we patrolled brought me and represented Willis on

back because we've been there for a while and they

were trying to finish their work and get the get

the driver I guess processed whatever they needed to do

Dance

Yeah

Ain't nobody cares about that

Yeah I don't know what dan was doing that

I think he came he came in another car

They were the patrol car only had room apparently for

two of us

I actually thought he was in the car at first

and I looked around

You weren't in there

We're all glad dan wasn't driving

Be clear

What time did you get back to parlay This happened

around 9:30 PM

That's a good question

9:40

I want to say we got back here a little

before 11 sometimes we'll be there for a while

No no no

It was one of the one of the one of

the Tahoe's you see downstairs a lot

Yeah but glad everything seriously glad everybody is all right

Um And I just I can't say enough good things

about how officer Purdue handled

I mean he just stayed calm in the situation that

kept me kept control of the car because if somebody

didn't know what they were gonna driving or just weren't

trained

I mean it could have thing could have gone south

in so many ways because it was a hard hit

Yeah

What's that I think he deserves a day off today

He uh yeah he's not coming in today

So uh yeah we did

I mean just just grateful everybody was okay

I'm just really thankful because that was you think in

those kind of things you think how something like that

could go south in so many ways and and we

were we were worried initially right that this was something

intentionally targeted like this guy was trying to take me

or somebody probably dan out for some reason right I

don't know

You know that that that that it was something like

that

And and I don't I don't believe that was the

case

I think this person from what I see was just

so impaired to such an extent that he was just

out there and it could have been it could have

been anybody

It just happened to be us and it worked out

worked out well in that respect

I could say if I could only imagine me to

hit you know somebody that didn't have that experience was

in like a like a little car or something like

that

It could have been really bad

Right So so yeah so it was my personal vehicle

It's one of those and they and on those vehicles

uh they just have what just a regular north Carolina

tag on them

And you can't like for example the blue lights you

can't see them

They're kind of hidden

You gotta look for them

They're kind of tucked in the grill or up in

the up in the back something like that

Yeah

No generally they just stack those usually staff that the

two police ones that they use there's the one that's

marked but they don't drive it that much

It's not in the greatest shape but the two there's

two of the black ones that are police vehicles and

they have the white tags on anyway

Well good to see you all

This wasn't what I expected to deal with on a

on a friday you know But but but we're just

really really very thankful and appreciative of the work really

And not only also to do but all of the

police and first responders with that

I appreciate y'all coming today

Thanks

And I discovered long story

Yeah

Two outcomes

Yeah