Rocky Mount man sentenced to eight years in prison after 111-mph chase with deputies

A Rocky Mount man was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for possessing a short-barreled rifle that was not marked with a serial number after a high-speed chase with a child and a puppy inside his car.

Chi-Ali Bunn was driving faster than 111 mph in January 2023 while trying to elude sheriff’s deputies with guns, drugs and a child in his car, according to U.S. Attorney Michael Easley.

“A short-barreled rifle and high-capacity drum magazine have no place around a child, especially in a car traveling at speeds over 100 miles an hour,” Easley said in a news release. “We will keep up our partnership with local law enforcement to get illegal guns out of dangerous hands like Bunn’s.”

Bunn, 29, pleaded guilty to the gun possession charge on Sept. 26, 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

In January 2023, Bunn approached a Nash County Sheriff’s Office license check station, the department said.

The Justice Department said Bunn, a felon, turned around to avoid the station and deputies pursued.

During the pursuit, the department said Bunn ran multiple stop signs, traveled on the wrong side of the road, weaved in and out of traffic and narrowly avoided colliding with other drivers, including a law enforcement vehicle.

The pursuit continued into Zebulon where deputies with the Wake County Sheriff’s Office successfully deployed stop sticks, which flattened two tires of the suspect’s vehicle.

The Justice Department said law enforcement didn’t know that Bunn’s young child and a small puppy were in the car during the chase.

After the car was stopped, deputies searched the car and found a loaded 9-millimeter handgun capable of accepting a large capacity magazine, a .223-caliber rifle with a barrel length of 7.5 inches, a loaded drum magazine, a pill bottle containing eight Oxycodone pills, a cut straw containing cocaine residue and a digital scale.