Mount Olive police hunting for suspect in June shooting
By Bonnie Edwards
Published in News on July 10, 2005 2:00 AM
MOUNT OLIVE -- A man wanted in connection with a shooting death is still evading police.
Mount Olive Police Chief Emmett Ballree said the longer Richard Lee Swinson, 26, evades police, the guiltier he looks. Ballree said he expects to apprehend Swinson for questioning sometime this weekend.
Police want to talk to Swinson about the June 30 murder of Jennifer Louise McArthur, 22, of Fairview Circle in Goldsboro. She died from gunshot wounds while visiting an apartment on Daly Boulevard in Mount Olive. Ballree said Swinson is believed to have been staying at the Daly Boulevard address, but his name was not on the lease. Police do not know his last official address.
"For over a week now, he has absconded from the law," Ballree said. "It's pretty obvious he knows we're looking for him."
Swinson is wanted on one count of murder and two counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. He is considered armed and dangerous.
Police believe the murder weapon was some kind of high-powered rifle. Shots came from outside, piercing the walls in the apartment and continuing into the apartment next door. Five people were inside the first apartment, including an 8-year-old child who was up and moving around, and four people next door, including two sleeping children.
Anyone who knows the whereabouts of the suspect should call the police at 658-5031 or Wayne County Crime Stoppers at 735-2255.