Being a Moore County Cop Can Be Dangerous

Friday, October 14, 2011

There's a disquieting correlation between population growth, availability of lethal weapons and the number of law officers killed or injured in the line of duty.

Throughout U.S. history, more than 19,000 cops have made the ultimate sacrifice.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the national death count rose from one or two policemen killed annually to 50. During the lawless Prohibition era, it rose to 200 annually. This century, about three cops are killed each week.

In America, 900,000 officers risk their lives to protect others. Violent crime rates are at historic lows, yet 16,000 assaults on police officers occur yearly. North Carolina ranks sixth among states for officer fatalities.

Fortunately, Moore County's Sheriff's Department and Cameron, Pinehurst, Pinebluff, Taylortown, Vass and Whispering Pines police report no killed officers, albeit many have been injured carrying out their duties.

Police Chief John Letteney reports that Southern Pines has lost more officers than any other law agency in Moore County (five killed in the line of duty). From 1929 to 1961, every Southern Pines chief of police met a violent end.

Chief Joseph Kelly was shot at Massachusetts Avenue and May Street in 1929, when he stopped a car driven by a burglary suspect. In 1931, Chief Benjamin Beasley was shot by a criminal in Durham. In 1939, Chief Jasper Addison Gargis died after struggling with a violent man, while trying to subdue him at the same intersection where Kelly was shot.

In 1961, Chief Charles Edwin Newton was killed answering a -disturbance call while trying to -disarm a disturbed man armed with a shotgun. Newton was shot in the face and killed instantly. Detective Ed Harris, a 20-year law enforcement professional, was assassinated in 1991 by drug dealers who came to his home and shot him six times in the face in retaliation for a drug investigation he was conducting. They also wounded his wife.

On June 17, 1946, soon after the town of Hemp changed its name to Robbins, it lost its popular police chief, Shellie Wayne Moxley, after a deadly shootout with two drunks in the E.E. Moss Grocery Store. Moxley killed one man and wounded another but was fatally shot twice in the stomach and once in the shoulder.

In Aberdeen, on Jan. 10, 1924, Police Chief William Pross Page was shot and killed trying to apprehend a burglary suspect.

Carthage lost Chief Bernice Cameron on March 15, 1953, shotgunned in the face when eight men ambushed him in a dark alley. Only 24 years of age, he'd been on the force a mere four months. In 2009 Carthage police officer Justin Garner was wounded apprehending recently convicted killer Robert Stewart at Pinelake nursing home.

These deadly incidences are dramatic evidence that the life of a policeman has always been a dangerous one in our county. And as long as guns of all kinds find their way into the hands of criminals and the mentally disturbed, the risks to those in law enforcement are only exacerbated.

Congressman Howard Coble, who voted to allow handguns to be carried concealed into our once halcyon national parks, has had a 100 percent pro-NRA voting record. Both he and GOP Congresswomn Renee Ellmers, perhaps soon to represent this -district in 2012, support HR822, the National Right to Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, which will allow out-of-state visitors to bring concealed guns into North Carolina.

Ask any cop you know how he or she feels about that disconcertingly dangerous idea.

Paul R. Dunn lives in Pinehurst. Contact him at paulandbj@nc.rr.com.

More like this story

teufelhunden 1 year, 7 months ago

I would love to hear from LEOs about this. Please share. Also thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you do to protect and serve!

skylinefirepest 1 year, 7 months ago

Perhaps Mr. Dunn in his all knowing wisdom will enlighten us as to how allowing CCP's from other states come into N.C. to visit makes our lives more dangerous?? His comment is just more of his anti-gun claptrap that he writes with boring regularity. Let's see...I have a N.C. driver's license and I can go anywhere in the country but I shouldn't be able to carry a firearm ( despite my clean record, and training, and background investigation, and fingerprints on record ) because somehow the carrying of a firearm makes everybody more threatened??? As usual, he doesn't have the facts on his side and fails to do any research on the subject. I suspect he knows that he is lying through his eyeteeth and doesn't want to bother his hatred for firearms with the truth. As it happens I do interact with a gracious number of Moore County's Finest and I know exactly ONE who feels that citizens shouldn't be allowed to carry concealed. Mr. Dunn--You are elderly and I presume you couldn't hold a candle to a twenty year old intent on doing you harm...so whatcha gonna do??? Call 911 and pray that there is a policeman in your immediate neighborhood that can find your house and rescue you?? Can you and your loved ones together hold off an intruder long enough for PPD to get there?? I ask because I live in the county and there's not always a deputy within several miles of here...so an intruder to my home would have to contend with two armed elderly people!! And my firm belief is that if you break into my home, while I'm at home, then you intend to do me harm and I'll not stop shooting until you are no longer a threat!! I realize that this will not cause you to do the research because you have a many year record of making stupid, un-substantiated, tiresome attacks on firearms and their owners. Like the time you said that fully automatic firearms were not necessary to hunt with...a true comment but one that didn't make a lick of sense because full-auto firearms are owned by only class 3 licenseholders. I could go on because you have a record of such comments, but instead I'll simply issue you a challenge. Do your research and then how about a public apology??? I'll even say "please do the research."

mooremedic 1 year, 7 months ago

Holy cow, are you kidding me?....I was really enjoying what I thought this article was going to be about, which initially seemed to be how dangerous it is to be a Law Enforcement Officer....but was really only a disguised attack against LAW ABIDING, TRAINED and REGISTERED concealed carry citizens. Please don't waste your breath or the energy it took to type this out when the LEGAL concealed carry citizens aren't the ones that contribute to the lawlessness and dangerous encounters that our fine law enforcement officers see everyday. The drug dealers, thiefs and thugs that do cause the problems are the ones that law enforcement officers are worried about, how about standing on your high horse and fight against them?.....I need to talk to Ed Nicely, I think there's an empty building in downtown Pinehurst that would make a great gun shop!

fugitiveguy 1 year, 7 months ago

I give the lefties consistency points. They exagerate the danger from law abiding gun owners just like they hype the danger from non violent religions.

skylinefirepest 1 year, 7 months ago

I'll take you to task one more time, and I do request an answer, Mr. Dunn. You say "And as long as guns of all kinds find their way into the hands of criminals and the mentally disturbed..." and then you remark on the reciprocity of visitors with concealed carry permits being allowed to carry concealed weapons in our state and then call that a dangerous idea. What exactly does "criminals and the mentally disturbed" have to do with concealed carry permit holders who have been fingerprinted, investigated, etc. ??? And please tell us, how in any way, shape, or form does that make us threatened??? Please, please enlighten us O Guru of the Anti-gun!!!

RmeMP 1 year, 7 months ago

LoL, OK... since you want a LEO's perspective, here it is:

Not only am I NOT afraid of people with a concealed weapon permit, I RECOMMEND IT!!! Why you ask? Let's take 100 people for example, who have a concealed weapons permit, how many oof those do you think are by and large good law abiding people? I would say, in my experiance, 98% of them.

Would you also like to know my opinion about now being able to carry in national parks? I think it's about time!!!

Imagine this scenario: You, your wife, and your 8 year old child go for a three day serene camping trip to the Uhwarrie mountains; you set up camp, pitch your tent, sit around a campfire making smores, having a great time creating fond family memories which will last a life time - THEN, you all go to sleep for the night... you wake up to your child screaming for help, a little scared to investigate you hesitate for a minute not knowing who or what you might run into, then you rush over just in time to see a strange burly man coming out of your child's tent covered in blood and WHACK! He lays you out with a haymaker to your jaw; when you awaken, you find yourself hogtied and gagged only able to watch what he is doing to your wife - then when he's done with her, he slices her throat and has some fun with you, before killing you as well.

NOW rewind to where you hear your child scream for help, only THIS TIME, you happen to grab your .40 cal Glock from your bag, and you go running to his tent immediatly, not afraid of who or what you may run into, you see the big burly man trying to get inside your son's tent and he sees you, you also notice a knife in his hand and he charges you - you fire two shots, hitting him in his chest and dropping him stone cold in his tracks. Family safe, and you go home as the family protector you shold be...

Still don't think you should be able to carry a firearm in a forest - where the closest help may be an hour or two away?

eflat7 1 year, 7 months ago

Good writing and good point.

TreadLightly 1 year, 7 months ago

Our concealed carry permits are already reciprocal with 34 states.

Yukonjohn 1 year, 7 months ago

RmeMP, I could not agree more!! Excellent story of two entirely different outcomes of a family confronted with a dangerous criminal. Law Enforcement, I think, are thrilled to see armed citizens that are salt of the earth people. Criminals ALREADY are armed....do folks not see that?

Secondly, many of the LE's that were killed in the line of duty were killed during prohibition. Also there was a drug killing in there. If our modern day prohibition was ended, and drugs made legal, these killings would cease or at least drop dramatically!! Once you take the money out of drugs, they only people that drug dealers are going to want to kill are the ones that took their livelyhood!!!!

Toda 1 year, 7 months ago

Mr. Dunn's article sheds light on firearms and criminal activity coming across state lines. One can agree that those who have legally registered firearms and training present few problems for law enforcement. I think some need to take a step back and reflect on the real issues of gun ownership. No one has chastised those who own guns for legitimate protection of family, property and self preservation. How does one defend the sale of semi-automatic and high powered rifles by US gun shops and allowed by the ATF to cross over the boarder into Mexico. One DEA agent was gunned down with one of those firearms. Here is just one of many internet periodicals that give rise to legal firearms going to Mexico and South America, killing civilians and law Enforcement in other countries:

"Fourteen guns were seized after a deadly drug raid on a house in Tijuana, Mexico, in October. Five of those guns reportedly had been purchased in Las Vegas.

Those five guns — four assault rifles and one sniper rifle — represent a small drop in the steady stream of firearms that flows from the U.S. into Mexico, where they support drug trafficking operations, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office last week. That report noted that 87 percent of firearms seized by Mexican authorities and traced in the past five years had originated in the United States, and that roughly one-quarter of those American guns confiscated in Mexico are high-power, high-caliber firearms. While the vast majority of these traced guns track back to border"

So skylinefirepest your comment: "a true comment but one that didn't make a lick of sense because full-auto firearms are owned by only class 3 license-holders." doesn't quite hold factual information as well. Perhaps those Prosecutors, Judges, US boarder patrol officers who are having to deal with the "legal" flow of weapons into Mexico take comfort in your statement. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jun/25/us-guns-are-crossing-border-how-many/

Toda 1 year, 7 months ago

"On November 5, 2010 President Felipe Calderon expressed his frustration to CBS News correspondent Peter Greenberg: "We seized more than 90,000 weapons...I am talking like 50,000 assault weapons, AR-15 machine guns, more than 8,000 grenades and almost 10 million bullets. Amazing figures and according to all those cases, the ones we are able to track, most of these are American weapons."

Here is a link to support my claims: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7330813n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

skylinefirepest 1 year, 7 months ago

Tommy--I think American gun owners are being blamed by the ill informed for the influx of weapons into Mexico. You know that fully automatic weapons and hand grenades are NOT being sold by gun shops in border states. I personally think that there's a lot to the Fast and Furious that has not come out yet and will put a stink, once again, on this sorry administration. Look at the numbers and weapons in your last post...assault weapons, machine guns, grenades, ten million bullets...you simply don't buy these at the corner gun shop!! The problem with Mr. Dunn's tiresome attacks is that he doesn't research the facts. He can go to the FBI uniform crime report for most any year and find that for several years the violent crime statistics show that with the extended advent of concealed carry the numbers have been dropping. In states ( and cities ) with previously high numbers of violent crimes when cc has passed the numbers start to drop, sometimes dramatically. The average punk doesn't want to be hurt while plying his trade.
To answer your question about the class 3 lic. holders...who has full auto weapons in the United States?? Military, Law Enforcement, some class 3 holders, but not the average Joe on the street. There are actually only a few gun shops that are licensed to sell full auto in the entire country. The bad guys, whether Joe or Jose, are NOT getting these weapons from gun shops.

Toda 1 year, 7 months ago

But they are being purchased in the US in gun shops. One gun shop in Phoenix, AZ sold mostly all the semi-automatics to Mexican Cartels. Then the guns were converted to fully automatic. Here is one link of interest. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/08/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20111009

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/29/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20110929

The .50 caliber bullet hole, the report says, likely came from a gun trafficked via Fast and Furious, an operation to allow nearly 2,000 arms to leave US gunshops via certain traffickers who the US government had identified and thought it could track. Now we are talking sniper firepower using 50 cal. rifles. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0726/How-Mexican-killers-got-US-guns-from-Fast-and-Furious-operation

Rather than follow the guns and arrest the brokers and middle men who helped move the guns south, agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives dropped back and ignored the transfer and transport of the weapons to Mexico.

Can't get any closer to home than this...

skylinefirepest 1 year, 7 months ago

Tommy, the transfer of guns was almost forced by the government and Obama and Holder apparently knew about it from the first. I would doubt seriously that semi's are being converted to full auto. The old AR15s could be converted but for many years now the models being produced are very difficult to convert without major machining. Much simpler to use full auto M16s given or sold to the Mexican government by our own government...also Central America is a major supplier of full-auto M16s. I fully agree with you that our government has acted with almost criminal intent in this matter...but that doesn't and shouldn't come back on the shoulders of law abiding Americans. In terms of Mr. Dunn's blog it is a non-issue.

RmeMP 1 year, 7 months ago

Toda, everyone knows you need semiautos for when the zombies attack, just ask the CDC ;)

phstresident 1 year, 7 months ago

Where's the "Like" Button for RmeMP's last comment about zombies? Too funny!

Toda 1 year, 7 months ago

"According to the report, released last week by Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California, Charles Schumer of New York, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, an ATF study of 2009 and 2010 crimes in Mexico involving firearms found that 70 percent of the traced weapons have a US source.

“Congress has been virtually moribund while powerful Mexican drug trafficking organizations continue to gain unfettered access to military-style firearms coming from the US,” Senator Feinstein said, releasing the report.

The senators’ report includes a number of recommendations to Congress, including that licensed gun sellers report all multiple firearms sales.

The Wilson Center’s Olson says the tragedy of Fast and Furious is that it, too, was aimed at addressing a problem that until a few years ago received little attention.

“All of a sudden a few years ago there was a lot of attention to this problem of straw purchasers, the people with clean records that the traffickers send into the gun stores to make their purchases,” he says.

skylinefirepest 2 hours, 15 minutes ago "Kingery, who was arrested and released in June 2010, confessed to manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) using grenade components from the U.S. He also admitted to helping the cartel convert semi-automatic rifles into machine guns. Mexican criminal organizations are increasingly using these military-style weapons as the cartels' escalate their wars against the government and one another.

Obviously the guns are not being converted in any country other than the good ol US of A.

Toda 1 year, 7 months ago

RmeMP 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

So are you smoking something or just off your meds for paranoia schizophrenia? Never seen a zombie except on TV...How many have you shot with a semi-automatic?

Toda 1 year, 7 months ago

"You know that fully automatic weapons and hand grenades are NOT being sold by gun shops in border states?"

according to the links and websites (not Wikipedia) that I have searched, Holder nor Obama was aware of the undercover sting operation that was in effect.

Prosecutors involved in the case also accuse ATF agents of devising a failed sting that allowed Kingery to take hundreds of grenade parts across the border in the months about six months prior to his arrest.

The Congressional Oversight Committee has also expanded its Fast and Furious investigation to include the Kingery case. The Committee is investigating who in the Obama administration knew about the gunrunning program, under which ATF agents allowed more than 2,000 guns to "walk" across the border.

Toda 1 year, 7 months ago

"phstresident 39 minutes ago"

Funny or totally absurd...do you see zombies walking around Pinehurst as well? They have meds' for those types of psychological dysfunctions.

TreadLightly 1 year, 7 months ago

It is an interesting philosophical concept as to whether private citizens have a civil responsibility to protect their families, or should all protection involving lethal weapons be the responsibility of the police.

Then you could try the same question from ethical and religious standpoints.

Yukonjohn 1 year, 7 months ago

Does anyone disagree with the fact that if the US legalized drugs, these "drug lords" would be third world paupers in a month?? Take the money out of it, and they are done. So are the taliban in Afghanistan. Yes, there are alot of US guns in Mexico, but if the wind was taken out of the drug trade, they would have guns that looked like those guns of protesters during Viet Nam....they would have flowers sticking out the end of the barrels!!

RmeMP 1 year, 7 months ago

hey toda, why dont you take YOUR meds and take a deep breath while you're at it... you know these message boards can be little fun every once in a while - try getting your panties out of the wad they are currently in ;)

BTW - the CDC DID IN FACT publish a blog titled, "Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocolypse"...

(Hence, why everyone is riding the zombie wave lately...)

http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/

skylinefirepest 1 year, 7 months ago

Treadlightly==it's not a concept of self protection...it's a God given right, not a priviledge bestowed by the government. And think about it...if I am in your house meaning to do you or your family harm, just how long is it going to take for enough policemen to get on the scene and do something. And that's presuming that I even allow you to make the call for help. There's a very appropriate saying that goes "when you need help right now the cops are only minutes away". Look how long it took for the police at Columbine or Virginia Tech ( free-fire, gun-free zones, by the way ) to assemble enough manpower to actually make an entrance.

MikeNC 1 year, 7 months ago

Like Mooremedic...I thought what a nice tribute to LEO's this was going to be and then the entire purpose is laid out. Concealed carry has in fact saved many lives not only of self; but of family, loved ones and complete strangers. Ask some of these whose lives continue today on account of a responsible armed citizen what they might think. One down side of NC carry laws is that they are too restrictive as to where the responsible armed citizen can legally carry. Hopefully there will be legislation to correct some of that which will provide another layer of protection for all of us. If you could ask a 'bad guy' what one of his greatest fears in conducting nefarious business might be; one fear will be the armed citizen....Mike

marriedwithchildren 1 year, 7 months ago

Ok so you guys are sitting here saying that so many guns are being bought at gun stores and sent to mexico for the drug trade. Someone even said that semi automatic rifles cant be turned into fully automatic without extensive machine work.... One thing to think about is this, do you have the serial numbers to all your guns with photos and all pertinent information documented just in case they are stolen from your home? If not then answer me this, even though you legally purchased your firearm at a gun store then how will you report it stolen? Also, how will it be identified as stolen if it is located in mexico or a border town? Not all legal gun owners have their guns documented in case of them being lost or stolen. I just wonder of all those guns that have made it there, how many were stolen here in the US from a person who purchased them legally from a gun store. Chew on this a little bit before anybody starts bashing the legal purchase of firearms. I have a nice little collection going on and plan to buy more as money permits.

My other point is that probably any semi auto firearm can be made into full auto with some basic metal skills and basic tools. It may not be 100% perfect but it would work. Now with the way that crooks, and criminal have figured out how to hack your computer and steal your identity as well as your money and credit. Do you not think they would be smart enough to take an ar-15 or an ak-47 and do a little work on it to make it fully auto? Granted most criminals arent the smarted bunch around but some do have the ability to get things done.

In all of this I am just trying to say dont rule out stolen weapons and a somewhat smart criminal here and there.

Toda 1 year, 7 months ago

"RmeMP 20 hours, 21 minutes ago"

Just wondering if it was a medical condition causing you to think outside the box?

"try getting your panties out of the wad they are currently in ;)" Yes the boards can be fun sometimes when some exchanges are not taken out of context using sarcasm. I too like to joke and kid around, ergo I have disdain for sarcasm. BTW: I'm not a cross dresser and don't wear panties, briefs no less. I did think you were making light of the "Zombie Apocolypse"... just wonder what that research will cost the American taxpayers? (;>0)

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