Lawmen thwart robbery
By John Joyce
Published in News on August 30, 2015 1:50 AM
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Full SizeDUDLEY -- Restraint by the first deputy on scene and the fact a homeowner was out of town helped prevent any injuries during a burglary attempt near Brogden Middle School on Thursday night, Wayne County Sheriff's Office officials said.
Four suspects are in custody, one of whom -- armed with an unloaded shotgun -- is lucky to be in jail rather than the morgue, deputies said.
The call came in at 10:15 p.m. A concerned citizen reported a suspicious vehicle parked behind a church near the school.
Deputies arrived on scene to find four suspects wearing masks huddled near buses in the school parking lot. One of the suspects had a shotgun.
"Deputy Josh Davis was first to arrive on scene. He encountered four guys with masks. One had a shotgun down his pants," Lt. Sherwood Daly said.
Davis disarmed the suspect and took him into custody while the other three fled.
By that time, nearly all of the Sheriff's Office B-Shift, fearing the worst, flooded into the area, Daly said.
About 45 minutes into the search for the remaining suspects, a call came in reporting a stolen vehicle.
The description of the allegedly stolen vehicle matched the vehicle the concerned citizen had alerted deputies to behind the church earlier. Daly said he and the other deputies were immediately suspicious.
"We agreed to meet the guy at the Best Quality Food Mart over there in Brogden. We met him and started talking with him about it, but we already knew his story wasn't true," Daly said.
About half an hour into the conversation, a black man came walking around the corner who fit the description of one of the suspects who fled from the school.
"So he came walking up and we got him," Daly said. "Then, about 30 minutes after that, another man comes walking fitting the description of the other guy who ran, so we got him too."
The investigation continued and revealed that a nearby house had been broken into. Daly and some other deputies began to search residences around the school.
"We searched around a group of about seven houses and then we found one that had glass broken out of the back door. A subsequent search resulted in stolen property being recovered from under the school buses back in the parking lot of Brogden Middle.
The owner of the vehicle, Michael Jerome Wimbush, 18, of 103 Oriole Place, Jesus Reymundo Toledano, 19, of 2251 Grantham Road in Mount Olive, and Deonte Tykeem Morrison, 20, of 514 Rollingwood Drive were charged each charged with second-degree burglary, possession of stolen goods and felony larceny. Toledano, the suspect armed with the shotgun, is also charged with felony possession of a firearm on school grounds, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of marijuana.
Toledano and Wimbush were each placed in the Wayne County Detention Center under a $25,000 secured bond. Morrison's bond has been set at $20,000.
The fourth suspect -- a 14-year-old -- will not be identified publicly as he is a juvenile. He has been transported to New Hanover Juvenile Detention Center, Daly said.
Deputies made contact with the homeowner of the house that was broken into. It turns out the woman is out of town.
"It is fortunate, I told the one we arrested with the shotgun he was lucky. Homeowners are armed these days, and the shotgun he had was unloaded," Daly said.
"He could have been killed twice, by Deputy Davis or by the homeowner," Daly said.
Sheriff Larry Pierce commended his deputies for their quick response and said he hopes the arrests send a message to others committing break-ins in Wayne County.
"We won't tolerate it. And we are going to do all we can to stop it," Pierce said.
Pierce went on to thank the deputies of B-Shift and the concerned citizen who went the extra mile and called in the suspicious vehicle in the first place.
"I would like to express my thanks to all of the deputies that responded and worked together to execute this investigation and (these) arrests," he said.
"I (would) especially like to express my utmost appreciation to the concerned citizen that took the time to get involved ... we need more people to get involved and call 911 when they see something suspicious," Pierce said.