WLOS reported this week that the Macon County Sheriff’s Office has been identified as a COVID-19 cluster after multiple employees tested positive for the virus. In a statement posted to Facebook, the department said that cases in the department ranged from mild to severe. Public access to the sheriff’s office will be restricted over the next few weeks but the department will continue to provide its regular services. Keep reading for more news.
High Point. The Greensboro News & Record reports that High Point police officers exchanged gunfire earlier this week with people suspected of committing a series of vehicle break-ins and larcenies. Early Tuesday morning, two officers responded to a report that a several people were opening unlocked cars and stealing property stored inside. High Point police officials said in a Wednesday press conference that when officers arrived at the scene, one of the suspects shot at the officers from a vehicle while fleeing, which caused the officers to return fire. Police later found several guns in the abandoned getaway vehicle and arrested one suspect, Nakore Kewan Rogers of Durham. They are still searching for two other suspects and also are investigating the shots fired in the incident.
Citizen Review Boards. The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the North Carolina Mountain Chapter of the Police Benevolent Association and Asheville city representatives have been meeting over the past months with the goal of reaching consensus on a joint legislative proposal that would provide cities with authority to create civilian review boards. A recent letter from chapter president Rick Tullis to Asheville City Attorney Brad Branham states that meetings between city representatives and the PBA have included discussions of HB 916, a bill introduced in the 2019 legislative session that, among other things, would give review boards the power to make findings and recommendations on officer disciplinary actions and have input regarding law enforcement policy and training.
Webster. Last year the News Roundup noted that Brooke McKinley Webster, a former prosecutor in Wilkes and Yadkin Counties, violated a deferred prosecution agreement arising from a secret peeping incident at Wake Forest University in 2017 by trespassing at the school’s campus in September of 2018. The Winston-Salem Journal reported this week that the State Bar recently activated a stayed two-year suspension of Webster’s law license after he failed to comply with conditions imposed by the Bar.
Jail Death. The Fayetteville Observer reports that an inmate died on Tuesday at the Moore County Detention Center after suffering a medical emergency in the processing area of the jail. Few details are provided in the report, but Sheriff Ronnie Fields has asked the SBI to investigate the incident.
Lady Ninja. About a year ago, 82-year-old World Natural Powerlifting Federation Upstate New York Champion Willie Murphy struck fear in the hearts of criminals up and down the East Coast when it was widely reported that she had severely beaten a man who tried to burglarize her house. This week West Coast law breakers learned that it is in their best interest to leave 82-year-old women alone. As the L.A. Times reports, when a man attacked octogenarian Elizabeth McCray at her apartment building in Fontana, California, her friend Lorenza Marrujo, who goes by the name “Lady Ninja” and has a black belt in jiu jitsu, sprang into action and introduced him to a few of her “techniques.” First separating him from McCray with her signature “bent fingers” maneuver, Lady Ninja then delivered two elbow smashes to his sternum before pinning him to the ground and awaiting the arrival of police. Lamenting that she was “getting rusty,” Marrujo said that with better preparation she “would have done more damage” to the man who now is in Fontana police custody.