MONROE -- Police searched a neighborhood in Wingate for a man who fled from a license check and into a wooded area.

No arrest was made and the State Highway Patrol called off the search after about three hours. Police said they were looking into a possible link to a Monday morning shooting in Marshville, but did not confirm the man was a suspect.

Trooper Bryan Kirkpatrick said the chase started at a license checkpoint on Monroe-Ansonville Road. Police told the driver the Ford Thunderbird he was driving was listed stolen and he tried to escape toward Monroe. After making several turns in the city, the driver came back down Monroe-Ansonville Road heading toward Wingate. Just after Bob White Circle he spun out, and ran into a wooded area toward a housing development in the northwest outskirts of Wingate.

Police set up a perimeter from Monroe-Ansonville Road, along Bob White Circle to Maye Street. A bloodhound tried to track the scent and a helicopter made passes above the area.

The search was abandoned after about three hours.

Police were going to check into a connection from a Monday shooting in which Mitchell Gene Little Jr., of 127 Ridge Run in Monroe, was found dead in his car in Marshville

shortly after 12:30 a.m. Monday. Little was shot and his car was riddled with bullet holes, but it was unclear if he was shot while driving or if he was shot, then tried to drive. A cause of death has not yet been determined.