Additional charges filed in shootout
By John Joyce
Published in News on August 29, 2012 1:46 PM
Additional charges have been filed by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office against two suspects in custody since Friday's shootout with police.
Thomas Arthur Austin Jr., 31, 1005 S. Madison Ave., is charged with trafficking cocaine, possession of marijuana with the intent to sell and deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a firearm by a felon. These charges are separate from the five counts of attempted murder Austin faces for shooting at police officers when they attempted to serve a search warrant Friday at 712 Slaughter St. His secured bond has been elevated to $2,015,000.
The second suspect, William Darryl Braswell, 31, of Dudley is not believed to have fired his weapon in the Slaughter Street incident. Braswell was initially charged with trafficking cocaine and possession of marijuana. He is now also charged with possession of a controlled substance in a detention facility and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is being held under a $237,000 secured bond.
"Situations like this take longer because the SBI has to conduct their investigating into the shooting involving officers, the Drug Squad is handling the drugs, and criminal investigations is looking into the shooting at our officers," said Maj. Tom Effler, chief of investigations for the Sheriff's Office.
The ACE team, and Goldsboro Police Department's Selective Enforcement Unit, are no longer active in the investigations. According to Effler, their part ended when the shootout prevented them from serving their warrant and the scene was secured after the exchange of fire.
The identity of the suspect killed in the fire-fight is still in question. His body was sent to the medical examiner for an autopsy and has since been returned to the morgue.