Rideshare driver carjacked at gunpoint; suspects arrested after chase, CMPD says

CHARLOTTE — An armed carjacking, apparent joyride and brief police chase ended with two people in custody and the victim left rattled.

The ordeal ended in the Wesley Heights neighborhood of west Charlotte around 10 p.m. on Wednesday night.

Officers said they were alerted to the stolen car -- a Mazda 6 -- by CMPD’s Real Time Crime Center. They tried to pull the car over near Uptown, but it didn’t stop and a pursuit began.

During the chase, police said the car ran off the road, hitting a drainage ditch at Wesley Village Road and Wesley Green Way. The area is near a townhome development.

Mekayla Rodgers, 19, and Lonnie McConico, 18, ran from the crash, but were arrested by police with the help of K-9s.

Mekayla Rodgers, 19, and Lonnie McConico, 18 (Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office)

Around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, a Channel 9 crew saw about a dozen CMPD cars and an area blocked off by crime scene tape along Wesley Village Road, between Freedom Drive and Tuckaseegee Road.

Viewers sent Channel 9 video of CMPD’s helicopter overhead. On Thursday morning, there was still debris left behind from the crash.

This was the scene of the end of a police pursuit in Wesley Heights last night.

The owner of a Mazda 6 was carjacked yesterday morning.

Police got a hit on the tags yesterday evening. The suspects inside didn’t pull over for police and led them on a chase. pic.twitter.com/dfnUpqKJ4L
— Hunter Sáenz (@Hunt_Saenz) April 6, 2023

‘I ran’

This all began early Wednesday morning. Nosakhere Reed told Channel 9′s Jonathan Lowe he was driving for Uber around 3 a.m., making a pick-up off of West Sugar Creek Road, when his car was stolen at gunpoint.

“I see a guy come from around the back side of another truck that I was parked beside,” Reed said. “He was like, ‘Yo, give me everything, you can have the chain.’”

Reed says the suspect pointed a gun with a blue laser at his face.

“I gave him all of that,” Reed said. “He said, ‘Run before I shoot you, before I kill you,’ he said, ‘Run, run,’ he had the gun pointed at me, so I ran.”

Reed says the suspect chased him until he was able to get away.

He escaped with his life, but not his vehicle. The new car he bought just a few months ago was totaled in the crash.

“All that is going down the drain, because someone’s kids want to like stick someone up or rob someone and things like that, and all that stuff comes back on them,” Reed said.

Reed said he does not plan to go back to driving for Uber and is now searching for a new income.

The two suspects, Rodgers and McConico, have several charges, including eluding arrest, resisting a public officer, and robbery with a dangerous weapon.

(WATCH BELOW: Body cam video released after officers shot at armed man in west Charlotte)