REDISTRICTING-NORTH CAROLINA

Ruling coming on replacement N. Carolina redistricting maps

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina judges are quickly deciding whether the latest boundary lines for congressional and legislative districts from the General Assembly comply with a recent ruling that declared previous maps were illegal partisan gerrymanders. A panel of three trial judges has been ordered to approve new redistricting plans that the legislature voted for last week or adopt different lines by midday Wednesday. Candidate filing will resume Thursday under the new boundaries for the May 17 primary unless there’s an appeal that delays things. Republican legislators redrew maps when the state Supreme Court ruled lines they enacted in November violated the state constitution.

MULTIPLE BANK ROBBERIES

Suspects sought in 4 bank robberies in North Carolina

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police in North Carolina’s capital are looking for two people who are believed to have committed four bank robberies within two hours. News outlets report N.C. State University and the Raleigh Police Department have connected a car fire near the school’s Centennial Campus on Tuesday to bank robberies in Cary and Morrisville as well as in Raleigh. An alert was issued for N.C. State students for two men wanted for bank robbery were on the run after their car crashed into an apartment building. Police said no injuries were reported in any of the robberies.

FRAUD REPORTS-NORTH CAROLINA

FTC: North Carolina consumers lost $93M from scams in ’21

WASHINGTON (AP) — A report from the Federal Trade Commission says consumers in North Carolina made more than 64,000 fraud reports that totaled slightly more than $93 million in losses in 2021. The FTC says the top category of reports received from consumers in North Carolina was identity theft, followed by imposter scams and credit bureaus. Other reports involved online shopping, and banks and lenders, The median loss was $446. Nationally, consumers reported losing more than $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021, up from $3.4 billion in 2020.

DEPUTY SHOT-NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina sheriff’s deputy shot 5 times at traffic stop

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina sheriff’s deputy was shot five times during a traffic stop last weekend, but officials say he has been released from the hospital. The suspect who shot him is also hospitalized and warrants have been issued. The Charlotte Observer reported that a news release says Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Deputy Dijon Whyms was shot twice in the lower body and three times in the upper body during a traffic stop in the northern portion of the county just outside of Charlotte on Saturday. Whyms fired back and wounded the suspect, 23-year-old Aidan Bryant. The sheriff’s office says warrants show multiple charges against Bryant, including attempted first-degree murder. 

COLD CASES-ARRESTS

North Carolina police make arrests in 2 cold cases

KINSTON, N.C. (AP) — Police in a North Carolina city said Tuesday they have arrested two men in separate cold cases from the previous decade. News outlets report Kinston police arrested a suspect in a 2013 murder case. A murder warrant was obtained in January for 32-year-old Carlos Fields for his role in the murder of James Franklin. Police said Franklin was in a parked car with two others on Nov. 5, 2013. Kinston police also announced that a second suspect has been arrested in a 2015 shooting death. Michael Fisher was arrested by police on Tuesday in Kinston and jailed without bond in the shooting death of Timothy Nobles on May 31, 2015. 

TENT-ROBBERY

N. Carolina man arrested for slicing open tent, robbery

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Police have arrested a North Carolina man who they say sliced open a tent where two men were sleeping and threatened to kill them before one of the victims gave the suspect his jacket. A news release from Asheville police on Tuesday said officers responded to a campsite behind a local business on Friday morning. One of the victims said the man sliced open the tent, told them he would kill them and to give him everything they had. One of the victims gave the suspect a jacket. Officers found the suspect, who was still in the area, and arrested him. 

OVERDOSE DEATH-ARREST

N. Carolina man accused of providing drugs in fatal overdose

STATESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina sheriff’s office says a man has been arrested in connection with the death of another man who overdosed on Fentanyl. Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said in a news release on Tuesday that deputies responding to a death investigation at a location west of Statesville found the man dead in a bathroom with drug paraphernalia found at the scene. A news release says an autopsy performed on the man by the medical examiner’s office determined the man died of a Fentanyl overdose. Campbell says Kenneth Ty Parent was arrested and faces multiple charges, including felony death by distribution.

CONCRETE PIPES-ARTIFICIAL REEFS

NCDOT donates concrete pipes to build artificial reefs

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — The N.C. Department of Transportation has joined with the state Division of Marine Fisheries in a project to convert damaged concrete pipes into artificial reefs off the coast of Brunswick County. WECT-TV reports the pipes are too damaged for anything NCDOT would have used them for. Over a thousand tons of pipe were taken from the department’s maintenance yard in Columbus County. They were replaced after being damaged by Hurricanes Matthew and Florence. The Bladen County maintenance yard sent more than 100 tons of similarly damaged pipe to be used in the project last week.

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