A high-speed police chase into Wake County Tuesday night ended in the arrest of Stephen Oates, who was charged Wednesday with the murder of engineering graduate student Abhijit Mahato.
Oates, along with three others, was also charged in connection with one of several recent armed robberies near campus.
Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez announced at a security forum on campus Wednesday night that Oates, 19, had been charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in the shooting death of Mahato, whose body was found at his home at The Anderson Apartments Friday.
Oates was also charged Tuesday night with a Nov. 19 armed robbery. He was previously charged in 2005 and 2006 with breaking and entering and with assault on a female in 2006. He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning.
"The Durham Police Department is going to continue with its investigation of the homicide to ensure that we get anyone and everyone involved in it," Lopez said at the forum. "We're going to continue our patrols and redirecting them toward these robberies and investigating the robberies that have already occurred. We're also going to be working with this community on the crime-prevention aspect of it."
According to The (Raleigh) News & Observer, the chase began around 10 p.m. Tuesday when DPD Cpl. D.A. Ferrell attempted to pull over a white Taurus station wagon with Florida plates on Fayetteville Street. The vehicle matched the description of one used in a previous armed robbery.
Oates, William Smith, 20, and two 14-year-olds were charged with felony fleeing to elude. They were also charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon in connection with the Sunday holdup of a Duke employee and his wife.
The couple reported that they were robbed at gunpoint outside their Poplar Manor apartment on Lambeth Circle around 10 p.m. Sunday.
The quartet also may be suspects in other robberies in the area, including an incident involving a Duke graduate student just three hours earlier at the Poplar West Apartments.
More than 90 robberies have been reported since the new year, compared to 101 robberies reported in Durham for all of January 2007.
Clery Report statistics for 2007-2008 from the Duke University Police Department show that there were five robberies near Duke in 2006, down from eight in 2005 and 20 in 2004. None occurred directly on campus, and no murders were reported in the vicinity in the past three years.
University officials said police would maintain the heightened level of patrols.
"Even though there have been some arrests made, as you can see that there have been 90 robberies within the city of Durham and so we feel that this will be an ongoing problem," said Aaron Graves, associate vice president for campus safety and security. "We know we still have a lot of work to do."
Marisa Siegel contributed to this story.
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