Warrants have been taken out on two more suspects in the Labor Day shootout and vehicle collision that occurred at Sunset Avenue and Faircloth Freeway, injuring innocent motorists and shutting down the area for hours Monday. The suspects — one is currently hospitalized and the other on the lam — are both felons currently on probation for prior convictions in Sampson.
Investigators with the Clinton Police Department and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation on Friday released the names of the two Clinton men wanted in connection with the Sept. 3 incident.
James Curtis Walker, 21, of Golden Eagle Lane, is charged on warrants with assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Stanley Jamel Henry, 23, of 619 Eastover Terrace, is charged on warrants with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill and possession of a firearm by a felon.
According to police Chief Jay Tilley, warrants will be served on Henry upon his release from the hospital. Walker is currently being sought and officers are requesting any information from the general public on his whereabouts. The Clinton Police Department can be contacted at 910-592-3105 or police@cityofclintonnc.us.
The incident began just after 4 a.m. Monday when a dispute started at a backyard club in Sampson County was taken on the road, with two cars chasing one another into town, reportedly firing shots along the way. As the two vehicles entered the city limits, the Acura Legend plowed into the back of a local couple’s Ford truck, the impact from which sent the truck into a utility pole and crushed the driver’s side of the Acura.
Ray Cuvilje and his wife Cassandra, who were traveling in the Ford truck, were hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries.
The wreck, however, did not stop the gun battle, which continued between those in the Acura and the Pontiac. Even after the crash, gunfire reportedly continued to be exchanged. Three passengers in the Acura were taken to Sampson Regional and a fourth subject involved in the incident brought himself to the hospital later Monday morning.
Investigators are reviewing the physical evidence in the case and submitting it to the state’s Crime Lab. Additional suspects and charges related to the shooting and motor vehicle collision will be determined after analysis of the evidence and completion of the department’s reconstruction investigation, Tilley said.
SBI agents and Clinton police investigators have seized numerous pieces of physical evidence, including the two vehicles. There were shell casings found along all four lanes of N.C. 24 from about Westover Road to just underneath the U.S. 421/701 bypass where the Acura came to rest sideways in the travel lanes. The Pontiac, which had left the scene when officers arrived, was found later in the day Monday in Roseboro with at least three bullet holes in it.
Additional items were seized from inside both vehicles, and there were three weapons seized at the scene.
Earlier this week, Joseph Aaron Mack, 25, of 104 Mack Joseph Lane, Roseboro, was arrested and charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Bond was set at $225,000. Walker and Henry would bring the total charged in the incident to three, half the number believed to have been traveling in the two vehicles.
Mack was in the Pontiac with one other suspect. Henry and Walker were traveling in the Acura with four others.
“There were six people that were in the two suspect vehicles,” said Tilley. “We know who all the people involved were. We’re just trying to analyze some physical evidence before we go any further.”
As the possession of a firearm by felon warrants would indicate, Walker and Henry both have felony convictions on their records. According to the N.C. Department of Corrections, the men have extensive criminal histories in Sampson County, and Walker is currently listed as an absconder from N.C. Probation and Parole supervision.
Walker, also known as “Baby J,” was given a suspended sentence and 12 months probation after being convicted in Sampson of assault on a female in December 2011. He was previously convicted on felony drug possession, felony speeding to elude arrest, injury to real property and reckless driving in connection with a high speed chase in Sampson in December 2008. Those convictions came in August 2009.
DOC records show Henry is also currently on probation, having been convicted of felony drug possession in Sampson in October 2011, for which he was given a suspended sentence and 3 years probation.
Chris Berendt can be reached at 910-592-8137 ext. 121 or via email at sicrime@heartlandpublications.com.
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