CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A suspect who police pursued from Buckingham County all the way to Charlottesville on Friday, only to have him escape in the city, is still at large, Charlottesville Commonwealth Attorney Joe Platania said.

“I do want to publicly comment on this because I think the public deserves to know,” Platania said, declining to name the suspect. “My understanding is that the individual is still wanted, that they’ve identified who it was.  He was wanted out of one or two other jurisdictions for offenses, and he’s now presumably wanted in Charlottesville for felony eluding. He’s alleged to have committed a crime in the city, so he’ll be charged with that in addition to the other jurisdictions he eluded in and the other jurisdictions where he’s got warrants.  Just so the public knows, law enforcement is on top of that and actively looking for this individual who they believed they have identified.”

At approximately 4:44 p.m. Friday, multiple law enforcement agencies were engaged in a pursuit of a suspect who was eluding the police.  The chase originated in Buckingham County, which is approximately an hour south of Charlottesville.

As the high-speed chase entered the city, Charlottesville police officers responded and began assisting in the pursuit.  However, the apprehension of the suspect was never confirmed by local authorities, nor by the state police. The chase garnered even more attention because it was during a peak travel time on the opening weekend of the weekly free downtown music festival “Fridays After Five” and the pursuit in the 1200 block of Monticello Avenue was visible to multiple motorists and pedestrians in a very dense area of Charlottesville.

Platania provided an update from the City’s perspective on where the case stands in an appearance on WINA Morning News.

Platania said that, given the density of Charlottesville, his office takes the charge of eluding very seriously for a number of reasons.  “Charlottesville is ten square miles, it is a very small jurisdiction and there’s not wide stretches of road where you can get speed up.  So, in our office one of the most serious offenses is felony eluding and we say to judges, look, you’ve got to try really hard to get to high speeds and eluding in Charlottesville is not trying to pull away from a trooper on 64 or 81, not that that’s good or safe, but in Charlottesville area to your point of how small it is and the density, it is an incredibly dangerous offense and its treated that way by the prosecutors and hopefully the judges.”