Man killed Tuesday night identified by police
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on November 22, 2017 1:04 PM
Full SizeGoldsboro police have identified Tuesday night's shooting death victim as 42-year-old Sammy Lemarcus Evans, who was shot and killed at about 8:42 p.m. inside 109 N. Herman St.
Maj. Anthony Carmon, head of the Goldsboro Police Department's Investigative Services Bureau, said the city's automatic gunshot detection system, ShotSpotter, alerted police to seven rounds being fired in the area.
Carmon added that the shooting likely happened behind the home.
"I think it happened at the rear porch area," Carmon said. "The house sustained a little damage at the rear porch."
Carmon said Evans was an acquaintance of the people who live at the home. An address of 909 E. Mulberry St. is listed on the police report as Evans' home address, but Carmon said he is unsure if that's accurate.
"I think that may have been from a previous time that he put that down as his address, so I really don't know what his permanent address is, but he is an acquaintance of the people that live there at 109 N. Herman St.," Carmon said.
Carmon said the autopsy will have to determine exactly where Evans was fatally wounded.
Police are not yet releasing any suspect information, and are not willing to release any information about a possible motive.
Police so far have stopped just short of calling the shooting death a homicide, listing it on a police report as a death investigation.
"We are not looking at this as a suicide or an accidental shooting," Carmon said.
Carmon said investigators have not been able to connect any of the several recent shootings in the past five days -- including one double homicide Saturday morning -- to each other.
"Not yet, but that's something that we're definitely looking at," Carmon said.
Goldsboro Police Chief Mike West said the public should be mindful of the chance there will be retaliation shootings after the recent crop of violent incidents in the city.
"Retaliation shootings are always a concern for us and the public should be mindful of the possibility," West said. "I urge anyone in the community that hears or sees social media posts threatening future violence to call Crime Stoppers or pass the information on to a police officer in the community or at the department."
West said police will be acting on and investigating any tips they receive.
"We will increase our presence in areas of concerns and call back officers to duty if more personnel is needed," West said. "The SBI will also be assisting our investigators to increase the number of investigators on the scene as soon as possible."
West said an SBI agent has been working out of the Goldsboro Police Department for "a couple of months."
"It's not uncommon for the SBI to assign their agents to field offices as it allows them to be more available to agencies to assist if needed," West said. "Our agent has been assisting us with homicide investigations primarily."
West said the SBI has resources all of law enforcement can use, and having an in-house agent makes those tools more readily available. He said he hopes the partnership can continue for years to come, as he saw a need for the additional resource of having a locally-stationed agent.
"The benefit to us (Tuesday night) is that I had two additional investigators on scene almost immediately with a third arriving a short time later," West said. "The more investigators on scene and access to more resources early on in an investigation can make a big difference."
Another resource potentially aiding the investigation into the death is a Tsunami camera is stationed nearby the scene of Tuesday night's crime.
The cameras are attached to light poles throughout the city, and have several lenses protruding from the sides of a box that capture panoramic images and store them for up to 28 days before the camera automatically begins recording over existing footage.
There are five Tsunami cameras in the city. Only four of the camera's locations have been made public.
In addition to the one stationed on North Herman Street, there are Tsunami cameras stationed on Olivia Lane near where it intersects with South Slocumb Street, on a light pole facing Donel's Express Mart where East Elm Street and South Slocumb Street intersect, and at Olivia Lane and East End Circle.
Anyone with information about this crime, or any other crime in Wayne County is asked to call or text Crime Stoppers at 919-735-2255 or submit a tip at p3tips.com.
Callers will remain anonymous and if your information leads to a felony arrest, you will be given a cash reward for the information.
(This story has been updated to include comments from Goldsboro Police Chief Mike West.)