Shots fired, video footage leads to gun charge outside Donel's
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 16, 2017 1:04 PM
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Sutton
Goldsboro police arrested a man after he allegedly shot a gun into the air three times in front of Donel's Mini Mart at 518 E. Elm St. late Sunday night.
Timothy Andrew Sutton, 34, of 3201 Central Heights Road Lot 217, is charged with felony possession with intent to sell or deliver a schedule VI controlled substance, four counts of resisting, delaying and obstructing, concealed carrying a weapon and discharging a firearm within the city limits.
ShotSpotter, the city's automatic gunshot detection system, alerted officers to three rounds being fired near the front door of the store at about 11:31 p.m. Sunday.
A police report said numerous people were leaving the parking lot "at a high rate of speed" when officers arrived.
But one person approached police upon their arrival and reportedly told them the person doing the shooting was inside the store with a woman.
Officers then found Sutton standing near the alcoholic beverages with a woman. Sutton was searched but officers did not find anything on him, according to the report.
Police then went and reviewed video footage from the store. It reportedly showed Sutton getting out of a blue mini van and firing a gun into the air three times.
After seeing this on the recording, officers saw that Sutton and the blue mini van he reportedly arrived in were still in the parking lot at the store and had not left the area.
Officers approached the vehicle and ordered Sutton to get out of the van, but he allegedly refused.
Maj. Dwayne Dean, head of the Goldsboro Police Department's Operations Bureau, said in an email Sutton was forcefully removed from the car after disobeying the officers' commands when he was told he was under arrest.
Dean said Sutton admitted to having marijuana in his car, and police found the firearm he allegedly fired in the mini van.
Sutton received a $20,000 secured bond on the charges.