Durham police have arrested and charged a man with the kidnapping and assault of two University students early Saturday morning.
At approximately 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, after a car chase that ended in a three-car collision, police charged Markey Wilson, 18, of 417 Lakeland Street with one count of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree kidnapping and three counts of armed robbery.
When asked if the victims had identified Wilson as one of the assailants, Corporal Fran Borden, spokesman for the Durham Police Department, declined to comment. To do so might jeopardize the case, he said.
Police determined Wilson to be a suspect "after events that occurred on Saturday with the discovery of the stolen vehicle," Borden said. The vehicle, which belonged to a friend of the male student and was taken by the kidnappers after the assault, was discovered on the 400-block of Lakeland Street in Durham at approximately 11 a.m. Saturday.
Borden said that the suspect was arrested on an outstanding warrant issued by Duke Public Safety for a stolen vehicle. According to the Durham Herald Sun, Officer C.D. Wagstaff of the Crime Area Target Team noticed the suspect driving a blue Chevrolet Malibu near the intersection of Worth and Holman streets just after 5 p.m.
After spotting an additional police cruiser, the suspect attempted to flee down Pettigrew Street, at which point the officers began their pursuit. The chase ended when the Malibu slammed into Officer J. H. Dunleavy's cruiser at the intersection of Umstead and Fayetteville streets. No one was harmed in the collision.
At the scene of the accident, a revolver and a bag of marijuana were discovered in the suspect's vehicle, Borden said. Wilson has been charged with a misdemeanor drug possession, and his preliminary hearing took place yesterday.
The assault began at about 2 a.m. Saturday, when the victims were threatened at gunpoint by two assailants as the victims were walking to their car in the Georgetown Manor apartment complex, located four blocks from East Campus.
During the next several hours, the kidnappers beat the male student, leaving him for dead in a remote area outside city limits, and raped the female student twice. After forcing her to withdraw $300 from her automatic teller account, the kidnappers fled in the students' car.
The students were both treated at Duke Hospital over the weekend. The woman was treated and released on Saturday. The man was admitted on Saturday and was released in good condition on Tuesday, according to officials at the Hospital.
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