Wake deputies nab suspect after two-hour foot chase near Garner

According to Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison, deputies got a report of someone driving erratically behind Poplar Springs Church before 3:30 p.m. They caught up with the suspect on Old Stage Road, where he rammed a police car, then fled on foot.

“The secretary came out and when she came out, the guy was just speeding out of the cemetery driveway and that's when he collided with the deputy's car and kept going along Old Stage Road,” Jackie Branch, a Poplar Springs Church member, said.

Sheriff's deputies, Garner police officers and highway patrol troopers established a perimeter around the Eagle Ridge golf community to track the man.

“One of the troopers spotted him. He went up a path, jumped out and ran,” Harrison said.

Michael Raymond Schumpelt, 16, was captured in a wooded area of the subdivision just after 5 p.m.

“We used the 911 reverse, and we had some neighbors call us. We had a lot of help from the neighbors, too, and that made a big difference,” Harrison said.

“I see all these police cars with their lights on – this one pulling over here, that one pulling over there, that one zooming down the road,” Pat Anthony, an Eagle Ridge Golf Community resident, said.

Law enforcement officers helped teachers to dismiss students from nearby Vance Elementary School at about 3:45 p.m. The after-school program at the school was being conducted with limited attendance, and the school was locked down during the search.

Schumpelt was still being processed at the Wake County Jail Wednesday evening. Last month, he pleaded guilty to a breaking and entering charge, authorities told WRAL.