THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 21, 1995 TAG: 9510210273
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
For a split second early Friday, 21-year-old Trevece Hall was certain her life was ending, and in a spectacular, Hollywood-like fashion, no less.
Driving along I-64 toward Suffolk near the high-rise bridge over the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River, Hall was amazed to see that staple of action movies - a high-speed car chase - coming toward her.
Headed down the bridge, in the oncoming lanes, were five police cars from three law enforcement agencies. They were in hot pursuit of a Ford LTD.
Within seconds, Hall's car and two others collided, ending a 15-mile police pursuit. Then officers found the driver of the Ford - a man with a troubling list of recent traffic violations - dead by his own hand.
The collision tied up rush-hour traffic for miles.
The dead man was identified as Patrick M. Watley, 31, of the 1900 block of Haviland Drive in Virginia Beach. Investigators said he shot himself in the head with the same gun he waved at a Portsmouth officer early in the chase.
``The police lights were on and they were going very fast,'' Hall remembered Friday afternoon. ``I was still driving along and when I looked over to see what was going on all I could see was the bottom of this car coming toward me. Then he hit me.''
Police said the airborne LTD apparently struck another car, which then crashed into Hall's Pontiac Grand Am. The impact spun Hall around several times before she came to rest off the road pointed in the opposite direction. Hall, who had been returning to her home in Suffolk after taking her mother to work in Norfolk, suffered injuries to her head, arm and back. Before an ambulance took her to Chesapeake General Hospital, where she was treated and released, Hall got a glimpse of the driver of the Ford LTD.
``His car was up in the median facing toward Chesapeake,'' Hall recalled.
Hall didn't know at the time that Watley had fatally shot himself in the head moments before.
Elizabeth Jones, spokesperson for the Chesapeake Police Department, said that a Portsmouth police officer had just reached Watley's car when he saw Watley pull out his gun.
``He saw the man put the gun to his head and pull the trigger,'' Jones said.
Watley was pronounced dead at a hospital. Jones had no explanation for Watley's suicide. Jones did not classify the chase as ``high speed.'' She said the cars involved reached a top speed of 70 mph. She said it ended shortly before 8 a.m.
In addition to Hall's car, Watley's automobile also struck a 1985 Ford Escort. The driver of the Escort was not injured, Jones said.
Jones gave this account of the pursuit that started about 7:20 a.m.
A Portsmouth police officer drove past Watley as he was standing outside his car Lincoln Street and Portcentre Parkway in downtown Portsmouth. As the officer passed, he noticed in his rearview mirror that Watley ``was tracking him with a gun,'' Jones said.
When the officer turned his police cruiser around and attempted to arrest Watley, he drove away.
Jones said the Portsmouth officer attempted to stop Watley again at Portsmouth Boulevard and 5th Street. But again Watley drove on.
Twisting through Portsmouth's streets, and running at least one red light, Watley led police to Des Moines Avenue where he drove onto I-264, Jones said.
Jones said that most of the time during the pursuit speeds hovered near or slightly above the speed limit of 55 mph as Watley drove toward Suffolk on I-264 and then exited onto I-64 heading toward Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Two state police cars joined the chase at Bowers Hill, Jones said, and a Chesapeake officer joined the chase at the U.S. Route 17 exit on I-64.
Watley behaved bizarrely throughout the pursuit, Jones said. On the one hand, he brandished his gun at officers as they caught up to his car. Other times, she said, ``he used his traffic signal before making turns.''
At one point during the pursuit, the Chesapeake police officer fired his gun. No one was wounded. Jones said an investigation into the pursuit and an internal investigation was being conducted.
Watley also was aggressively violent. He tried to ram a Chesapeake officer on the high bridge, and he managed to force that same officer off the road and into the trees at the bottom of the bridge. The officer was not injured, Jones said.
When Watley tried to reverse his direction by driving across the median, he lost control of his car, striking the Ford Escort, which Jones said was then pushed into Hall's Pontiac.
Watley grew up in Portsmouth and graduated from Cradock High School in 1982.
In the past year, court records show, he racked up at least eight traffic offenses in four of the five South Hampton Roads cities, ranging from failing to dim high beams to using a car without permission, a felony. Three of the charges are still pending in court.
During that time, he used at least four different addresses in three cities, and he has listed three different birthdates, the court records show. Once, he was charged with three infractions in two cities on the same day - and used a different address and date of birth for each, records show.
As late as last month, he was charged with driving without a license. His other charges include:
Driving without a registration
No city decal
No insurance
Failure to yield
Expired license plates.
MEMO: Staff writers Mike Mather and Becky Myers contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Color map by John Corbitt, The Virginian-Pilot
Photo
Investigators said Patrick M. Watley shot himself in the head.
KEYWORDS: HIGH SPEED CHASE HOT PURSUIT SUICIDE HABITUAL
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