A multi-state search for a woman wanted in connection with a January murder at a Hickory furniture plant is ongoing this week and a U.S. Marshal said that there is a good chance that the woman and her husband, who also is wanted on suspicion of being an accessory after the fact, are still in the greater Hickory area. Keep reading for more on this story and other news.
Hickory Manhunt. As the Hickory Daily Record reports, federal and state law enforcement are continuing to search for Tangela and Eric Parker as Tangela is the prime suspect in the January 13 murder of Phelifia Marlow at TCS Designs, a furniture plant in Hickory. Marlow and Parker were coworkers and apparently were involved in an argument at work the week before Marlow was shot at the plant. Authorities have been searching for Tangela and her husband Eric since the shooting and have recently increased a reward for information leading to their arrest from $5,000 to $10,000. The couple, who are considered armed and dangerous, were last seen driving a beige 2019 Honda CRV with North Carolina tag FAM5669.
High Point Standoff. As WXII 12 reports, three High Point police officers were shot on Friday, February 5, during an hours-long standoff at a suspected murder scene. Fortunately, none of the officers’ injuries are life-threatening. Late in the night on the preceding Thursday, officers responded to gun shots at a home on West English Road where they found Josue Drumond-Cruz brandishing a rifle on the front porch. A team of officers went to breach the door of the home around 3am on Friday and were fired upon. One officer was shot in the leg, another in the hand, and another in the arm. Drumond-Cruz is alleged to have continued firing at officers throughout the morning. Eventually, members of the Greensboro Police Department Special Response Team returned fire and killed Drumond-Cruz. A woman, Blanca E. Cadavid, was found dead in the home and apparently had been killed many hours earlier.
Mooresville Contempt. The Mooresville Tribune reports that District Court Judge Christine Underwood held the Town of Mooresville and the Mooresville Police Department in contempt of court last week for willfully failing to comply with another judge’s order to return nearly $17,000 seized during a search of a car last year.
On November 16, the Mooresville Police Department discovered the cash and a small amount of marijuana while searching Jermaine Sanders’ rental car while it was parked at a hotel he was staying at. One day prior to a November 24 hearing about the seizure, Mooresville sent a cashier’s check for the amount seized to US Customs and Border Protection and told Sanders’ attorney to take the issue up with the federal government. At the November 24 hearing, District Court Judge Deborah Brown ordered the police department to return the money to Sanders. Last Tuesday, Judge Underwood found that the money had not been returned and gave officials seven business days to purge the contempt or else risk being jailed. The town has appealed the contempt finding.
Heat Map. WLOS reports that the Asheville Police Department has recently published a Gun Discharge Data Dashboard on the department’s new public data online portal. The WLOS article says that gun violence has been increasing in the city over the last decade and that APD Chief David Zack is planning to launch a gun crime reduction program soon that will be modeled in part on programs used in Buffalo, New York. Part of the effort in Buffalo involves monitoring social media for posts that include images of guns and indicate plans for revenge. Officers, along with community leaders and nonprofit organizations, attempt to interrupt violence by knocking on the doors of people who make such postings. The WLOS article says that Asheville’s gun violence reduction plans have been hampered to some degree by the high numbers of officers leaving the department recently.
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