Multistate crime spree leaves 2 dead, 3 wounded

Posted: Friday, January 2, 2015 2:33 pm | Updated: 5:00 pm, Fri Jan 2, 2015.
Associated Press |

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A multistate crime spree left a North Carolina couple dead and their home torched before two suspects were caught in a New Year's Day shootout that wounded two police officers, authorities said Friday.

Investigators began piecing together the crime Thursday around 4 p.m. when two Lewisburg, West Virginia, officers pulled over an SUV on a highway outside the city, according to State Police. The SUV had a North Carolina license plate showing it had been stolen, according to police.

During the stop, a truck pulled over nearby and its driver shot at the officers with a handgun, wounding both, State Police Lt. Michael Baylous said. One officer returned fire, wounding the suspect in the leg.

Baylous said the SUV driver fled and hid but later turned himself in. The truck driver also fled and was eventually taken into custody.

Investigators then discovered two bodies under a mattress in the truck's bed.

Baylous identified the suspects as Eric Campbell, 21, and Edward Campbell, 54, of Texas. Police say Edward Campbell was the driver of the truck and the gunman who was wounded.

Police say the two identified themselves as father and son.

They'll be charged with malicious assault and attempted murder of a police officer, police said.

Lewisburg police Chief Tim Stover said Lt. Jeromy Dove, a 16-year veteran of the force, was grazed in the back of his neck. Patrolman Nicholas Sams, a rookie just out of training, had shrapnel in his forehead.

Stover said both wore protective vests, and he expected both to leave the hospital Friday.

In a phone call with The Associated Press, Sams, 20, said he was doing well and confirmed that he had been with the department just about a week. He declined to comment further.

Carrie Dove, wife of 36-year-old Jeromy, said her husband called her from the scene. "The only thing he said to me was, 'I've been shot. I'm fine. I'm going to the hospital in an ambulance.' That's the worst call a policeman's wife can ever dream of."

She said he had just gotten home from the hospital and was doing well (conversation was at about 2:20p).

Granville County Sheriff Brindell B. Wilkins Jr. told Raleigh TV station WRAL that the bodies in the truck were those of Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife, Dora Faulkner, 62.

The sheriff told the station that the two suspects burst into the Faulkners' home northwest of Oxford on Thursday morning, set the house on fire and took the couple and their SUV.

Wilkins said it wasn't immediately clear why the two were targeted or exactly when they were killed.

The Associated Press couldn't immediately reach Wilkins.
Last September, suspect Edward Campbell was arrested for aggravated assault, according to court records in Brazoria County, south of Houston. Court officials could provide no other details Friday. They said his case file had been sealed.

He also had been on probation or deferred adjudication for five years after pleading guilty in 2007 to a charge of possession of a controlled substance.

Campbell had been a nurse in several states.

Records show his Florida license expired in 1998. His Texas license was revoked in 2009 after charges related to more than 80 incidents of improper documentation, misuse or misappropriation of narcotics while working at several Houston-area hospitals in 2007.

Chrystal Daugherty, who was married to Campbell in 1984 and 1985, said he also worked as a nurse in California and brought home drugs from work. She hasn't talked with him in nearly 30 years.

"He needed to go to jail a long time ago." She said
In rural Granville County, North Carolina, Jerome Faulkner, 73, was a founding member of the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department near Oxford in the 1980s and served as its chief.

He'd retired a few years ago.

"He helped train me when I joined. He was a mentor," said Steven Frazier, the department's current chief, who joined in 2000.

"He would still come by and help out when he could, but he was enjoying his retirement," he said.

With about 8,400 people, Oxford is a typical small town, with tree-line streets and roads to the country. The Faulkners lived on one of them in a house set back from the highway.

Faulkner served as a deacon at Mountain Creek Baptist Church in Oxford and regularly handed out programs as an usher, said the Rev. Johnny Edwards.

"They were very quiet. They kind of stayed to themselves at the house, but if you needed any help at all, they were there to help you," he said.

Neighbor and relative Judy Laws said she heard sirens blaring and saw trucks speeding down the road. The Laws live about 500 feet away, but a thicket of trees block their view. She said Dora Faulkner worked as a nurse. Laws said her husband has health problems, and the Faulkners were always willing to help. "All I needed to do was call and Dora would be here in a minute," she said.

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/new...6537e44fa.html