The Mount Airy Police Department is seeking the location of two individuals, and one woman is in the hospital following an officer-involved shooting in Mount Airy Friday night.
According to the department, at about 6:46 p.m. officers attempted to stop a vehicle they believed was involved in an illegal drug transaction.
While the officers, whose identities are not being released, attempted to stop the vehicle, the occupants of the vehicle failed to stop and proceeded toward one of the officers.
Believing their lives were in imminent danger, officers fired their weapons into the vehicle, which fled the scene, according to a written statement released by the department.
According to police, additional officers converged on the scene and began pursuing the vehicle, which eluded police.
“A short time after the incident occurred, an unidentified female arrived at Northern Hospital of Surry County with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound,” a spokesman for the department said.
Police later determined that the female, whose identity has not been released, was one of the occupants in the vehicle in question.
Subsequent investigation revealed the identities of both the driver and an additional passenger. Police are now searching for Joseph Harold Ezekiel, 51, and Derrick Ray Simmons, 25, in connection with the incident.
Warrants have been issued for Ezekiel charging him with conspiracy to sell and deliver a scheduled II controlled substance, maintaining a drug vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and felony speed to elude arrest.
Simmons has been charged with the sale and delivery of a schedule II controlled substance and conspiracy to sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance.
Police believe the vehicle in question is a black 2010 Dodge Challenger with North Carolina tags CDB-2463.
Police are asking anyone who spots the vehicle or either of the suspects to call the Mount Airy Police Department at 336-786-3535.
The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, as is standard practice when an officer fires his gun in the line of duty.
Police have declined to release additional information, and say the city department along with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate the case.
Reach Keith Strange at kstrange@civitasmedia.com or 719-1929.
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