By Gwen Albers

The Tidewater News

Police believe an Ivor-area teen charged with felony eluding also torched three vehicles and drove through a church gymnasium and into a general store, both in the Ivor area.

The 16-year-old was arrested in Ivor, but was not identified because he is a juvenile, said Capt. Rick Gaddis with the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office.

“We don’t know the motive,” Gaddis said Tuesday. “We can speculate all day long.”

A chain of crimes began at 3:30 a.m. Monday when a deputy spotted someone driving a pickup without headlights in Smithfield. When the deputy attempted to stop the driver, the driver sped away. During a pursuit, the driver stopped and a young, black female got out of the truck and ran, Gaddis said.

The driver continued to flee until the pursuit ended on Great Springs Road, Smithfield. According to Gaddis, the driver got out of the truck and ran into the woods.

At 4:41 a.m., deputies were called to Sandy Mount Baptist Church on Scotts Ferry Road, Windsor, for two vans that had been set on fire. The vans were destroyed, Gaddis said.

Then, at 5:25 a.m., deputies received word that someone had driven through the gymnasium of the Mill Swamp Baptist Church at 6329 Mill Swamp Road.

“We have a utility trailer; he hit that first,” church secretary Sheila Epperley said. “Then he turned around and rammed the church bus, pushing it two feet. He then came through the double doors of the gym.”

“I don’t think it was an accident,” Epperley continued. “The (double) doors are gone.”

The suspect left the gym by driving through a single door, damaging the wall of the metal frame building, she said.

The building is insured, but a damage estimate was not available this morning, she said.

Twenty minutes later, deputies were called to Pons Store at 7458 Mill Swamp Road, Gaddis said.

Jimmy Carroll, whose wife leases the general store, said a vehicle had driven across a neighbor’s yard and into the store.

“He pushed the wall in about a foot, knocked over a sink and knocked down a cabinet and microwave,” Carroll said.

The kitchen cannot be used because of the damage and may take a week before it’s reopened, he said.

Two minutes later, a 2002 white Dodge van was found burning at 8128 Mill Swamp Road. It too was destroyed.

A parked vehicle was struck on Hall Town Road just before 6:30 a.m. About 15 minutes later, someone tried to set a parked vehicle on fire on Scotts Factory Road in the Smithfield area. Sometime between 6:25 and 7:30 a.m., five mailboxes were reported damaged on Raynor and Comet roads.

Gaddis said it’s believed the crimes are related because of times and proximity, as well as several leads.