Dudley, NC — Three Wayne County deputies were shot while serving an involuntary commitment warrant in Dudley Monday morning. Joel Gillie, spokesman for the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, said one deputy was at Wayne UNC Health Care while two were taken to ECU Health. The deputies’ conditions were not immediately known. “Right now, our thoughts and prayers are with the individuals in our department and their families as they deal with their trauma,” Gillie said. The shooting happened around 10:30 am. at a home in the 2500 block of Arrington Bridge Road. Heavily armed officers from the State Highway Patrol, WCSO and surrounding agencies continued to surround a home in the area at noon Monday.
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Gilbert Baez talks with a Sampson County deputy who is learning to walk again after being shot last month. Gillie said the suspect was still barricaded inside the home Monday afternoon. Information about who filed the warrant and what weapons were used in the shooting has not been released. The sheriff’s office has not released the names of the deputies who were shot or the severity of the deputies’ injuries. It is not yet clear who fired the shots. Chachi Torres said his son, Ramon Torres, was one of the deputies shot. He said he had a “bad feeling” when his phone went off on Monday morning. “Usually, I’d have my phone ready for any kind of news and I had a bad feeling… my phone went off. I look at it. Boom. Wayne County Sheriff’s Office [deputies] was shot. I call everyone and find out that one of them is my son.” Chachi Torres said it was some of the worst news he could receive as a parent. “I’m calling my wife, I’m telling my wife, my daughter. We just got in the vehicle and came straight to the hospital,” he said. Ramon Torres is in good spirits, his father said. “He’s a little sore right now, but he’s strong… He told us, he doesn’t want to see anybody, so I understand. He’s good,” Chachi Torres said. “I’m just praying for the other two [just] just because my son is here doesn’t mean [I] just worry about Ramon. We are worried about the other families.” It’s typical for three deputies to serve an involuntary commitment warrant, Gillie said, and the deputies had no history with the suspect. According to the Gun Violence Archives, there have been six incidents in NC this year where a police officer has been shot and injured or killed. Nationally, the database shows there have been at least 201. From January 1, 2019 to today, North Carolina has had at least 73 incidents where a police officer has been shot and injured or killed. This places our state eighth in the nation for such incidents during that time period. In the same time period nationally, there were more than 1180 incidents. They have gone up over time. Up from 297 in 2019, 330 in 2020 and 360 incidents reported to the APA for 2021. At this point last year, there were 190 incidents reported, so we’re getting past that.
