A U.S. Secret Service agent has been placed on administrative leave after a private citizen captured video of a car being driven recklessly on Interstate 77 and on a two-lane road in southern Mecklenburg County.
The car was being driven by the Secret Service agent who was on duty at the time, according Stuart Watson, an investigative reporter from NewsChannel 36, the Observer’s news partner.
The video was taken May 20 and posted on YouTube in two parts. Some of the language is raw, and the person who took the video admits in a YouTube comment that “I talk like a sailor.”
The video begins on southbound Interstate 77 in Charlotte, apparently near the Tyvola Road interchange. The person who took the video can be heard talking about what he is seeing.
Initially, the speeding Dodge Charger can be seen weaving across lanes on I-77 and then apparently engaging in a form of high-speed “tag” with a van. At one point, the driver of the Dodge Charger can be seen pulling in front of the van and then slamming on his brakes. Moments later, after getting behind the van, the driver turns on his blue lights and pulls over the van — only to race around the van and speed off.
The Dodge Charger then speeds off, entering the ramp from I-77 to the outer loop of I-485 in Pineville.
“He’s going 80 mph in a 55 zone — with no lights on,” said the man who taped the events.
The video ends there, but the man who taped it started a second part on a two-lane southern Mecklenburg County road. NewsChannel 36 said it was Providence Road West. Once again, the Dodge Charger can be seen speeding along the road.
“The speed limit is 35,” the man taping the video says. “I’m going 55, and he is blowing away from me. He must be going 90. And he’s pulling into a subdivision. He’s going home … That’s where he was going, this whole time!”
The license tags on the vehicle belong to a car registered to the Secret Service, according to NewsChannel 36.
Russ Nelson, special agent in charge of the Secret Service in Charlotte, told WCNC that the agency is investigating the incidents.
Both parts of the speeding videos were removed from public viewing on YouTube early Thursday afternoon. The videos are now marked as “private.”