Five face charges in Mount Olive shooting
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on January 18, 2010 1:53 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Police arrested five people after a Saturday evening drive-by shooting at a home filled with both children and adults for a birthday party, the police chief said.
Chief Ralph Schroeder said this morning that one person suffered a minor injury. Clifton Lee Leach's ear was bleeding after the incident.
Police could not immediately determine if the wound Leach, 35, suffered was a result of a gunshot or from shrapnel created during the drive-by shooting, which took place around 8 p.m.
Investigators said a white BMW was seen leaving the area of the shooting, Christine Seaberry's home at 117 E. Williamson St.
Lead investigator Detec-tive Sgt. C.J. Weaver responded to the traffic stop, after officer Juan Quintan-ille got behind the vehicle at the intersection of Indian Springs Road and N.C. 55.
Weaver, Sheriff's Office deputies, Cpl. Michael Pike and Officer Hunter Martin conducted the traffic stop, finding five people inside the BMW, Schroeder said.
Arrested were:
* Tramaine Santwan Surrett, 19, of U.S. 301 in Smithfield;
* Christopher Devon Brown, 18, of Green Valley Drive, Goldsboro;
* Rodick Powell Jr., 18, also of Green Valley Drive, Goldsboro;
* Jamaine Eugene Rivers, 18, of North Carolina Street, Goldsboro and
* Emmanuel Dillon Perrin, 20, of Dupont Circle, Goldsboro.
The men were all jailed under $100,000 bonds and charged with malicious assault in secret, discharging a weapon into an occupied building, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and carrying a concealed weapon, according to police records.
The seized gun was a type of semi-automatic handgun, Schroeder said.
Police do not currently believe that Leach was the target of the men's aggression, Schroeder said.
"We're still working that (motive) a little bit," the chief said. "At this point right now, we think it had something to do with something that occurred earlier in the day.
"It didn't have anything to do with Mr. Clifton or his grandmother (Mrs. Seaberry), it had to do with some other family members, I think."
The chief said the birthday party was in full swing when the shooting happened.
"There were a large number of children at the house when this happened," the chief said.
Also that night, just before midnight, an unidentified gunman with a black handgun tried and failed to enter a security door at the Southern Belle Motel on N.C. 55.
Police this morning did not have a full description of the man who attempted the robbery, Schroeder said.
Investigation continues into that incident as well.