Training Day
BY TOMMY KOPETSKIE, Staff writer
The six men stood together,
some supporting themselves with their hands on their knees, catching their
collective breath.
Fatigued by their final cardio workout, each man's brow grew moist, and
perspiration beaded on their temples.
One member of the group concluded, as the sun set over the Brunswick County
law enforcement facility in Supply, that his best days, physically, were
setting, too.
"What's the damage?" questioned Lt. Mickey Smith of the Brunswick
County Sheriff's Office and SWAT leader, to the nearby reporter holding
the stopwatch.
The wristwatch, substituting for an actual stopwatch, read 4 minutes and
20 seconds.
The group would not be content with that mark.
The six members of the Brunswick County Sheriff's Office SWAT team would
begin to debate why the handful of training exercises took so long.
Although the afternoon's events were somewhat informal, the group will
have to improve on its results to contend in its upcoming competition.
Beginning Nov. 28, the Brunswick County SWAT team will participate in
the SWAT Round-up International competition in Orlando, Fla. The six-day
event, now in its 22nd year, pits against each other the world's most
elite SWAT teams.
Last year, more than 80 teams from across the globe participated in the
event, which combines head-to-head competition, educational seminars and
a trade show in the international showcase.
The Brunswick County team won a state SWAT competition in April. However,
a flawless performance will be needed to place among the world's best
next week.
Last week, the SWAT team could schedule just four training days to prepare
for their daunting challenge.
On Thursday afternoon, the team scheduled a live fire demonstration, with
Sheriff Ronald Hewett and Chief Deputy Tony Cummings taking in the action
from the sidelines.
"This event will give us a cardio competition, a shooting competition,
a stress factor competition and a lot of things we haven't done yet,"
said Auxiliary Deputy Jody Taylor, who leads the training regiment.
Sprinting full-tilt from station to station, the group scaled steps, ropes
and ladders, crawled through concrete piping and maintained proper tactical
procedures.
The drill concluded with gunfire with sharpshooters Rich Roman and Keith
Bowling taking out their doughnut-sized targets placed 150 yards away.
Although the demonstration was a moral success, the team could not effectively
fire the less-than-lethal handgun on its first two attempts. Failure to
fire the weapon correctly at next week's competition could ruin the team's
chances of a prominent ranking.
The weapon, which looks almost cartoonish in design with its big barrel
and coffee-can sized mid-section, has a real-life purpose. It fires a
rubber-headed projectile, similar in size to a badminton birdie. The projectile
is meant to paralyze a criminal suspect momentarily, without having to
use deadly force.
"The weapon is used in a tactical situation where we have a person
who is violent," Sheriff Hewett said. "What it does is hit them
with an amount of impact to disorient them and knock their breath out."
One of the most daunting tasks for the SWAT team was finding time to field
and prepare the team for the international event.
Unlike most of their competition, Brunswick County's SWAT team is comprised
of strictly non-paid volunteers.
"This group is very special because for them, this is a secondary
duty to their full-time job," Cummings said. "They volunteer
their time and still they ranked No. 1 in the state. They are tough."
Another challenge for the team will be facing competition that has already
trained at the Orlando facility.
"All the teams in Florida have an advantage, because they're training
and working on the course as we speak," Taylor said.
In preparation for the events in Orlando, the team built a wooden apparatus
called a "Jacob's Ladder."
The contraption is a mixture of one-part monkey bars and one-part horizontal
ladder.
Team members must swing over and under each bar without letting their
feet touch the ground below.
"That's the first obstacle down in Orlando and it would have killed
us," Taylor said. "We worked in the dark recently and put it
together with a steel saw and a hammer.
"When we got on that for the first time the other day, it was ugly."
The Jacob's Ladder obstacle is just one of more than two dozen impediments
awaiting the team once in Orlando.
According to team members, however, facing the best of the best will be
a great learning experience regardless of their ranking after the six-day
event.
"We will be there with the best and largest SWAT teams in the world
and that will educate us," Lt. Smith said.
"We will learn different techniques that hopefully we can bring back
to Brunswick County."
"We are proud of this team, the members and the sportsmanship that
they have all shown," Sheriff Hewett said.
"And I'm very proud of their accomplishments so far this year with
being named the No. 1 team in the state of North Carolina.
"I anticipate that this team will put heart, soul and muscle into
the competition and make this county proud."
Article published Nov 26, 2004
Arrest made in Brunswick murder
Suspect was tenant on victim’s property
BOLIVIA | It took about eight hours for Brunswick County sheriff’s
deputies to arrest and charge a 25-year-old man in the murder of Stacy
C. Lewis, whose body was found in a shallow grave Wednesday.
Christopher Adam Jackson, of 4749 S. Lewis Trail, was arrested in Lillington
early Thursday morning with the help of Harnett County sheriff’s
deputies and agents of the State Bureau of Investigations. He has been
charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond at the
Brunswick County Detention Center, awaiting his first court appearance
Monday morning.
According to an autopsy finished midday Thursday, Mr. Lewis was shot twice
in the head, Brunswick County Sheriff Ronald E. Hewett said in a press
conference Thursday afternoon.
According to Sheriff Hewett, Mr. Jackson was a tenant on Mr. Lewis’
farm and lived behind Mr. Lewis’ house in a mobile home.
“He shot and killed Mr. Lewis and transported him from the Lewis
farm back to the residence of his father and buried Mr. Lewis in his dad’s
back yard,” Sheriff Hewett said.
Benny Jackson, Mr. Jackson’s father, who lives in a trailer home
at 5671 E. Ocean Highway, had been out of town a couple of weeks and came
home Wednesday to find that someone had been digging in his back yard,
Sheriff Hewett said.
“They started digging and found a human hand,” the sheriff
said.
Mr. Lewis was last heard from by family members on Nov. 15 and reported
missing on Monday, Sheriff Hewett said. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Brunswick
County sheriff’s deputies and volunteers combed the 33-acre tract
where Mr. Lewis farmed vegetables such as collards and mustard greens.
The sheriff said he suspected foul play early on and that Mr. Jackson
became a major suspect as soon as Mr. Lewis’ body was discovered.
“We found it very suspicious that both Mr. Lewis and his tenant
were missing,” Sheriff Hewett said.
SBI agents interviewed Mr. Jackson on Tuesday night and again Wednesday
night, and while Brunswick drew warrants, Harnett County deputies and
SBI agents began surrounding Mr. Jackson’s mother’s house
in Lillington, where Mr. Jackson was believed to be.
Mr. Jackson has a criminal record, including numerous traffic violations
and convictions of some narcotics crimes, Sheriff Hewett said.
Sheriff Hewett, who had spoken to Mr. Lewis’ five daughters, said
they were relieved to know what happened to their father, but devastated
over his death.
Sheriff Hewett said he didn’t foresee any additional arrests but
added that the investigation was ongoing because they still didn’t
have a motive.
“It’s a very unusual case,” Sheriff Hewett said. “To
shoot and kill someone and bury the victim in their father’s back
yard; I have never seen anything like it.”
Ũ
Majsan Boström 343-2075
majsan.bostrom@starnewsonline.com
Posted on Wed, Nov. 17, 2004
Third suspect in major bust nabbed
By Steve Jones
The Sun NewsBOLIVIA, N.C. | The Brunswick County Sheriff's Department
may have wrapped up the largest heroin bust in its history when Furgie
Tyree Walker was jailed Sunday night under a $2 million bond.
Walker is a third suspect in a heroin bust the department's drug unit
made in March 2003. Two others charged in that bust have been sentenced
to prison.
Walker, 28, is facing up to 80 years in prison for numerous drug counts
involving heroin and cocaine, said Brunswick County sheriff's Detective
Israel West. He is charged with four counts of conspiracy to traffic heroin,
two counts of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, two counts of possession
with the intent to sell and deliver cocaine, two counts of sale and delivery
of cocaine, one count of possession with the intent to sell and deliver
heroin, and one count of sale and delivery of heroin.
West said he began working the case in January 2003 and, with the help
of an informant, learned that Walker and Rashawn Sims were getting heroin
and other drugs from New Jersey to sell in Brunswick County.
West said he arranged for Sims to rent a van to pick up drugs in New Jersey
and then stopped the vehicle on U.S. 17 at the northern turn to Bolivia
when Sims and Tanya Holmes returned.
Officers found 2,500 bindles, or hits, of heroin sewn into children's
stuffed animals in the van. The heroin weighed 98 grams, West said.
Holmes, the sister of Sims' girlfriend, went with Sims on the trip to
provide cover in case they were stopped. Both took their children with
them, West said, to appear to be a family to law enforcement officials.
Once the two were apprehended, West said officers went to the home Sims
shared with Walker and apparently arrived just after he had fled. West
said a shower at the home still was hot from someone bathing there.
Officers found 4 ounces of crack cocaine, 15 ounces of marijuana, an assault
rifle and drug paraphernalia in the residence, West said.
Sims was sentenced to 23 years in prison after pleading guilty to one
count of trafficking heroin. Holmes got four to eight years for her part
in the crime, West said.
Brunswick County authorities and the FBI continued to search for Walker.
At one point, they found that he was getting federal aid money in Colorado
Springs, Colo., where his parents lived.
West said Walker was getting federal help because he had been shot in
the head in 1999.
Walker finally emerged after a traffic stop in Madison County, Ill., West
said. The officer who stopped him ran his name through a federal computer
system and found that Walker was wanted in North Carolina.
West said Walker waived extradition to Brunswick County.
West said that heroin use in the coastal Carolinas is higher than many
people may suspect. He said that every third car with S.C. license plates
headed south on U.S. 17 in Brunswick County has been to Wilmington to
buy heroin.
West said the reason people buy it in Wilmington is because it is more
plentiful and cheaper there than along the Grand Strand. A bindle of heroin
sells for $20 in Wilmington, he said, and $50 in Little River.
"We [eliminated] a big player," West said of the 2003 bust and
Walker's recent arrest.
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Contact STEVE JONES at sjones@thesunnews.com or (910) 754-9855
Posted on Fri, Nov. 05, 2004
Campus drug busts increase
Brunswick County Schools considering some solutions
By Brock Vergakis
The Sun NewsBrunswick County Schools continued to see an increase in the
number of students caught on campus in possession of a controlled substance
last year, according to a state report released this week.
The 2003-04 Annual Report on School Crime and Violence shows a statewide
trend of an increasing drug problem.
"We're all trying to come up with a solution to this," said
Shirley Babson, chairwoman of the Brunswick County Board of Education.
"It's been a concern of mine for a long time."
In Brunswick County, 74 students were caught with a controlled substance
last year. Five years ago, 44 students were caught.
Babson said a committee will meet in the near future to examine the problem.
One option being considered to curb the problem is rewarding students
who voluntarily allow themselves to be tested for drugs and are found
to be clean, she said. That would primarily be used at the middle-school
level, she said.
Drug tests for high-school students is another option, she said. That's
being done in other parts of the state.
The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system started testing students
who participate in athletics and other extracurricular activities this
year through funding from a federal grant.
Drug possession was by far the largest reported crime in Brunswick County
Schools.
The only other crime that came close was possession of a weapon, excluding
firearms and explosives, with 41 reported incidents.
There was one report of possession of a firearm and three reported assaults.
The problem with drugs is they are most frequently brought on campus to
be sold, said William Lassiter, school safety specialist for the N.C.
Center for Prevention of School Violence.
"We find possession of drugs as one of the precursors to [violent]
incidents, also. When a child brings $2,000 to $3,000 in drugs on campus,
they're most likely going to bring something to protect that investment,"
Lassiter said.
The Brunswick County Schools system has been working with the Sheriff's
Office, Social Services and court officials to find solutions to the drug
problem and make parents more aware.
Awareness by teachers and school officials also could be one of the reasons
more students are being caught, Lassiter said.
"I think we're doing a better job of catching kids. We're starting
to send the message that if you bring drugs on campus, you're going to
get caught," he said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact BROCK VERGAKIS at (843) 399-8745 or bvergakis@thesunnews.com.
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