This weekend's fatal wreck in Louisa County was the second fatal highway chase in the past two weeks that began in Louisa and ended in another jurisdiction.

The two incidents were the first fatal pursuits by county deputies in the eight years that Ashland D. Fortune has been Louisa's sheriff, and they have prompted him to take a second look at the department's policy on high-speed chases.

"We're looking at it real good right now," he said yesterday. "I have it on my desk right now."

High-speed pursuits are one of the biggest judgment calls a law-enforcement officer has to make, balancing the duty to apprehend lawbreakers against the risks that rise with every mile per hour.

On Memorial Day, Fortune walked into his office ready to call off a high-speed chase that had crossed into Albemarle County.

One of his deputies was pursuing a Geo Metro with no license plates that was speeding on state Route 22, a two-lane road that connects Boswell's Tavern in Louisa and Cismont in Albemarle.

"I knew Route 22 was a winding road, and I didn't want to lose one of my officers or vehicles," Fortune said yesterday.

But by the time the sheriff reached the emergency dispatcher to radio the deputy, the Geo had crashed into a tree in a fiery explosion that left its driver dead and, to this date, unidentified. The chase lasted seven minutes and had reached speeds of 85 mph.

"When we're involved in a pursuit, the person driving the police car has to constantly weigh the risk to the public, to himself and to the suspect," said Lt. Todd Hopwood, a spokesman for the Albemarle Police Department, which is still investigating the Memorial Day crash.

The driver of the car still hasn't been identified because he was burned beyond recognition, and the car he was driving was stolen. Fortune believes the driver drove into the tree deliberately, but the Albemarle investigation hasn't drawn any conclusions.

Albemarle's pursuit policy also considers why a suspect is being chased. "A speeding offense would not be reason to continue a high-speed pursuit," Hopwood said.

On the other hand, Hopwood recalled participating in a high-speed chase more than five years ago of a man who had stabbed someone and stolen a car. Albemarle police pursued the suspect through Fluvanna, Louisa and Orange counties before he wrecked in Greene County.

A similar threat of violence hung over a high-speed chase Saturday night that led two Louisa deputies into Goochland County. They were pursuing a 36-year-old man armed with a sawed-off shotgun who had threatened his mother with the weapon at their Gum Spring home and vowed to kill her and the first deputy he saw.

Four minutes and 3 miles after the pursuit began, the man, Michael R. Duncan Jr., lost control of his car while grappling with the shotgun, authorities say. The car hit an embankment on state Route 619 (New Line Road), rolled several times and threw Duncan to the pavement. The shotgun lay next to him.

There was no other traffic on the road, Fortune said. "If there's heavy traffic involved, we do not pursue -- we let him go."
Contact Michael Martz (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.