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(02/26/08 5:00am)
A Carrboro teen is facing a charge of attempted first-degree murder after the shooting of a 16-year-old boy Monday evening on Johnson Street, said Chapel Hill police Capt. Chris Blue.
David Earl Ellis Jr., 17, was taken to Orange County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bail pending an appearance in court today in Hillsborough.
The victim, shot in the abdomen, was taken to N.C. Memorial Hospital, and his condition was not released Monday night.
The shooting happened almost directly behind the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools' administrative center at the Lincoln Center, where youth basketball practices were going on about 200 yards away.
Officers used a police dog to search through a brushy lot next to 105 Johnson St., the house in front of which the shooting took place, and bagged as evidence a small black sneaker found on the curb.
Local residents emphasized that they didn't see anything and that they were glad they hadn't.
One resident did say he heard a car "floor it" seconds after the shot.
The incident was the third shooting in the area this year. In January, a man was murdered in a Food Lion parking lot in Carrboro.
Earlier this month, a man was killed in Northside. The man later arrested in connection with that slaying was picked up on Crest Drive, around the corner from Monday's shooting.
Senior writer Eric Johnson contributed reporting.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/11/08 5:00am)
Adam Sapikowski's head bowed closer and closer to the table Friday as family spoke about how much they missed the parents he killed.
"I'm not looking forward to my own graduation because I know when I get my diploma and I look out there, my mom won't be cheering, and my dad won't be doing his silly celebration dance," said Lauren
Sapikowski, the defendant's older sister.
His aunt and half-brother also read statements about how the loss affected them.
Officially, Sapikowski on Friday only pleaded guilty to and was sentenced for the murder of his mother, Alison Sapikowski. He had already pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and the murder of his father, James Sapikowski, the coach of the UNC club hockey team, as part of a plea deal.
The deal meant he was sentenced to between 40 years and four months and 50 years in prison.
Instead of claiming insanity, he took the deal because he wanted to spare his family a trial, said his attorney, Rosemary Godwin. He also avoided the possibility of a sentence of life in prison without hope of parole.
"He has struggled to accept what has happened," Godwin said.
The family's testimony marked what was presumably the closing chapter in a murder investigation that saw widespread coverage in the press, both because of James Sapikowski's prominence and because his son hosted a prom party at the house while the dead bodies lay in the master bedroom.
District Attorney Jim Woodall also revealed new details.
Sapikowski had claimed he shot his parents on the morning of April 29, 2005, because his father had been emotionally abusive and his mother hadn't intervened, Woodall said. He would have argued that his father threatening him with a baseball bat was the trigger that precipitated the murder, Woodall said.
But Woodall said the prosecution would have challenged his story, saying the killings had happened the night before because alcohol was found in the bladder of his father, whose doctor had told him to drink wine.
And while the bat was found upstairs, clean, a report card in the downstairs kitchen had the father's blood on it, Woodall said.
Shotgun pellets near the kitchen show that Sapikowski shot at his mother once and chased her to the bathroom, where he shot her in the head, killing her, Woodall said.
Sapikowski's mother was shot twice. His father was shot several times in the head and neck. All of the shots were fired by a single-shot .410-gauge shotgun, Woodall said.
The crime was found when police tried to check on the Sapikowskis, who hadn't been heard from.
"There was a very bad odor in the house," Woodall said.
Police later found shotgun shells on the floor throughout the house and the parents' bodies in the master bedroom suite, wrapped in linens, Woodall said.
Judge Carl Fox told Sapikowski that he would eventually be released from prison and that he should try to come to terms with what he has done and turn his life around.
"At some point, you will miss your parents," he said.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/11/08 5:00am)
James Kenneth Imonti was shot and killed Monday night in front of a Food Lion. The man arrested in the murder was a UNC employee according to a statement from the Carrboro Police Department. The police have arrested Garland McRay King Jr.65 of 900 Sesame Rd. and charged him with first degree murder according to Carrboro police reports.Imonti59 was reportedly King's son-in-law according to the statement.King told police he's an employee of the UNC Medical School according to reports and UNC spokeswoman Lisa Katz confirmed that a Garland M. King age 65" is employed by the UNC Medical School.""He works off and on as needed" and he works on a part-time basis when he is here she said.The shooting came at the end of an ongoing family dispute according to the statement.You definitely got the feeling that it wasn't just last night" said Carrboro police Capt. Joel Booker.Booker said that it isn't yet clear how both men came to be in the parking lot, which is only blocks from Imonti's home, but that they arrived in separate vehicles.When King was arrested he had a .357 pistol on his person, Booker said. Imonti had been shot once in the upper back at close range, according to the statement. He was later pronounced dead at N.C. Memorial Hospital.After the shooting, King was kicking Imonti and screaming profanities at him, said Jahin Ali, a UNC grad student who was at the Food Lion.I saw a big African-American guy yelling at something that was on the ground" and when I walked by there was a guy lying on the ground" she said.King started pulling on Imonti, as if trying to drag him, and ended up pulling Imonti's pants down, Ali said.After someone told King to leave Imonti alone, he went to his car, which was parked in a handicap space, and waited until police arrived, she said.King was taken into custody without incident, Booker said. He made a statement to police, said Carrboro police Capt. Daryl Caldwell.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.The Daily Tar Heel will continue to update this story as it develops.Read the full story about the Food Lion shooting in today's paper.
(01/30/08 5:00am)
James Kenneth Imonti was shot and killed Monday night in front of a Food Lion in Carrboro. The man arrested in the murder was a UNC employee, according to a statement from the Carrboro Police Department.
The police have arrested Garland McRay King Jr., 65, of 900 Sesame Road, and charged him with first degree murder, according to Carrboro police reports.
Imonti, 59, was reportedly King's son-in-law, according to the statement.
King told police he's an employee of the UNC School of Medicine, reports state, and UNC spokeswoman Lisa Katz confirmed that a Garland M. King, age 65, is employed by the School of Medicine.
The shooting came at the end of "an ongoing family dispute," according to the statement.
"You definitely got the feeling that it wasn't just last night," said Carrboro Police Capt. Joel Booker.
Booker said that it isn't yet clear how both men came to be in the parking lot, which is only blocks from Imonti's home, but that they arrived in separate vehicles.
King had a .357-caliber pistol on his person when he was arrested, Booker said. Imonti had been shot once in the upper back at close range, according to the statement. He later was pronounced dead at N.C. Memorial Hospital.
After the shooting, King was kicking Imonti and screaming profanities at him, said Jahin Ali, a UNC grad student who was at the Food Lion.
"I saw a big African-American guy yelling at something that was on the ground, and when I walked by there was a guy lying on the ground," she said.
King started pulling on Imonti, as if trying to drag him, and ended up pulling Imonti's pants down, Ali said.
After someone told King to leave Imonti alone, he went to his car, which was parked in a handicapped space, and waited until police arrived, she said.
King was taken into custody without incident, Booker said. He made a statement to police, said Carrboro Police Capt. Daryl Caldwell, but details weren't released Tuesday.
King was taken to the Orange County jail without bail, pending a first appearance in district court Tuesday, according to police reports.
Carrboro police seized a variety of evidence, including King's car, the pistol, clothing found on the ground near Imonti and assorted items from King's car, as well as a bag of groceries found on the ground next to Imonti, which included produce and a broken bottle of wine.
King has worked as a test patient since 2002, faking symptoms so medical students can practice diagnosing live subjects, Katz said.
"He works off and on as needed, and he works on a part-time basis when he is here," she said.
This is the first shooting homicide in Carrboro in recent memory, Booker said.
"It's been a pretty good while," he said. "It's been many, many years."
City Editor Sara Gregory contributed reporting.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/29/08 5:00am)
UPDATE: James Kenneth Imonti was shot and killed in front of a Food Lion on Monday night. The man arrested in the murder was a UNC employee, according to a statement from the Carrboro Police Department. Read more
One man shot another in the parking lot of a Carrboro Food Lion at about 6 p.m. Monday, according to police.
(01/29/08 5:00am)
James Kenneth Imonti was shot and killed Monday night in front of a Food Lion. The man arrested in the murder was a UNC employee, according to a statement from the Carrboro Police Department.
The police have arrested Garland McRay King Jr., 65, of 900 Sesame Rd., and charged him with first degree murder, according to Carrboro police reports.
Imonti, 59, was reportedly King's son-in-law, according to the statement.
(01/28/08 5:00am)
Members of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen are on board to return tasty Mexican snack food trucks to the town in the latest chapter of the zoning spat some town officials have dubbed "Tacogate."
"Where am I going to get cow tongue tacos at 11 o'clock on a Thursday night if we don't have taco trucks?" Mayor Mark Chilton asked.
The trucks operated out of parking lots at Cliff's Meat Market, Fitch Lumber Co. and a Hispanic grocery on West Main Street, but the town recently got an anonymous complaint and discovered that the trucks violate a zoning provision banning the sale of food from vehicles.
"The town is not trying to run these things off," said Marty Roupe, the town's development review administrator. "All we're doing is reacting to a complaint we received."
Roupe said that he had been questioned by residents about the trucks before but that when he asked whether they were filing complaints, residents had always said no.
Because of the anonymous complaint, the town sent letters to property owners at the three sites, saying the practice had to end. Since then the trucks have been out some nights and not others.
"If it's not possible to comply with the land use ordinance, then maybe the land use ordinance needs to change," Chilton said.
Other board members said they agree. Alderman Jacquie Gist thinks that the Board of Adjustment will be able to grant an exception if the owners appeal the town decision. Appealing costs $250.
Alderman Dan Coleman said the taco trucks represent the sort of entrepreneurial undertaking the town should encourage as it seeks to expand its commercial sector.
"They're a part of downtown Carrboro that a lot people value."
Aldermen also expressed concern at the anonymous nature of the complaint. Theories ranged from disgruntled competitors to unhappy nativists.
"Immigrants are not as popular as they used to be, and some folks don't even want to see them eating tacos," Alderman John Herrera said.
A memo from town staff stated that several other vendors similarly have been shut down, but Chilton pointed out that a hot dog vendor has long operated because no one has filed an official complaint.
But with at least four of the seven board members having stated their backing of the taco trucks, it's essentially guaranteed that the situation will be resolved in favor of the taco stands.
That means Chilton likely can snag a taco again soon though he probably won't actually be ordering the beef tongue.
When it comes to tacos, "I'm a grilled chicken kind of guy," he said.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/28/08 5:00am)
About 45 people gathered in front of the Franklin Street post office Saturday to protest America's policy on Israel and the Palestinian question.
They were out in reaction to the deterioration of the situation in the Gaza strip, though they cared about Palestinian issues in general.
The protesters believe American support for the Israeli government is wrong because it violates Palestinian human rights, they said.
"It's kind of disgusting that we're . supporting a government that is allowing that to happen," said Sarah Grossblatt, a senior international studies major at UNC.
She showed up at the protest, which comes just ahead of Palestine Week on campus, because it was announced over local activist listservs, she said, even though she's not a member of either sponsoring group, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and the Coalition for Peace with Justice.
Mohamed Youssef, a professor at N.C. State University and native of Egypt who came to Chapel Hill for the protest, said he was motivated by the conditions in Gaza.
"Over there people are not able to eat or drink," he said. "There's no food, no medicine, no fuel."
Israel closed Gaza's borders about a week ago after the number of rocket attacks from the strip increased. Recently, the wall separating Gaza from Egypt was blown up and Palestinians have flowed into that country, seeking supplies.
Youssef wasn't alone in his assessment.
"It's heartbreaking," said Sam Dolbee, a senior.
The crowd Saturday included families with children, a man in a beret and a woman with her Chihuahua mixes, Rico and Shadow.
In general, they were restrained, with little chanting or hollering. Instead, they held signs quietly and handed fliers to passers-by.
No opposition showed up to the rally Saturday, but Grossblatt said she didn't think her presence was at all contradictory to her Jewish heritage.
"I feel kind of responsible for the situation," she said. "I don't think it's anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic to be out here."
Grossblatt said she hoped people would be motivated by the protest to research the issue on their own.
"I want people to learn more about it," she said, "because people don't have a clue about what's going on."
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/28/08 5:00am)
One man shot another in the parking lot of a Carrboro Food Lion at about 6 p.m. Monday, according to police.
The man police arrested was kicking a man, who had been shot and was on the ground, when graduate student Jihan Ali walked out of the grocery store near the intersection of West Main Street and N.C. 54.
"I saw a big African-American guy yelling at something that was on the ground, and when I walked by there was a guy lying on the ground," she said.
The yelling man started tugging at the victim's pants, as if trying to drag him, eventually baring the victim's posterior, Ali said.
"It appears that they were familiar with each other," said Carrboro police Capt. Daryl Caldwell. He said they had argued before the shooting.
Ali described the man as more than 6 feet tall and weighing at least 240 pounds. She said another man, possibly a Food Lion employee, told him to move away from the victim.
The man then left the victim and went to his nearby car, a silver sedan parked in a handicapped space, and waited until police arrived, she said.
The man in the car was taken into custody without incident, and a pistol was recovered at the scene, Caldwell said.
The victim, who was unresponsive when police arrived, was taken to N.C. Memorial Hospital with a single, life-threatening gunshot wound, he said.
Carrboro police declined to release either name Monday night.
The suspect made a statement to police, Caldwell said.
Officers searched the suspect's car and the area where the victim had been shot, bagging several pieces of evidence in biohazard bags and carting off a bag of groceries.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/15/08 5:00am)
The development moratorium in northwest Chapel Hill will expire Jan. 31.
The Chapel Hill Town Council voted Monday night not to fight the expiration and to put in place new plans to permanently shape development in the area.
All new development applications in an area between Homestead Road and Interstate 40 along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard have been temporarily halted since last May.
No one at the meeting spoke in favor of extending the moratorium, a move town staff wrote might not be legally supportable in the first place.
"I think it has served its purpose," said Scott Radway, a former member of the planning board.
The new plan calls for an influx of development opportunity areas, which will allow for high-density zoning, while squashing older plans to put more restrictive zoning on much of the rest of the land.
Down zoning could be expensive for the town and bad for commercial growth, said Bill Bunch, chairman of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce.
"Our fiscal health should also be a consideration," Bunch said.
But zoning is a blunt instrument that can "get developers to the table," said Michael Collins, who is a member of the planning board but was not speaking on its behalf.
Town staff recommended against the zoning, as recommendations from the task force that studied the area will be entered into the town's long-term planning documents. Most development outside of the designated areas would already require extra permitting, so proposals will have to conform to those long-range plans.
The council also voted to aggressively pursue a realignment of University Station Road, which will connect with a new entrance to Timberlyne Shopping Center off of Weaver Dairy Road.
The reality company that owns Timberlyne sent a lawyer, Eric Vernon, to express its support for the proposal.
In order to make more strategic long-term planning in the area possible, the council also decided to approve staff plans to purchase new modeling software.
The software is designed to show more concretely the traffic, visual and other impacts of new zoning designations.
Plans to create a specific committee to look at further zoning in the area, particularly transit-oriented zoning, were scrapped in favor of integration of that process into the overall strategic planning of the town.
Del Snow, who chaired the task force, urged the council to get the software up and running as quickly as possible.
"You still do not have the framework on which to advance," she said.
She also pushed for improvements in public infrastructure to support the needs created by development.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/10/08 5:00am)
Chapel Hill is revamping its finance department and integrating information technology under a new business management director.
"I took the opportunity to kind of rethink our organization," Town Manager Roger Stancil said.
Stancil said he hopes the change will allow for more integrated and strategic planning and budgeting.
The town's information technology director, Bob Avery, will work for the new director, Ken Pennoyer, but there will be no new finance director.
Pennoyer said he thinks Chapel Hill will have more of the cross-departmental vigor he experienced in Upper Merion Township, Pa., where he worked before his current job as finance director for the city of Durham.
"I think it just kind of clicked with me," he said.
He will miss Durham "terribly," he said, but such a big organization creates certain hurdles.
"You tend to have sort of artificial walls between these different departments, and it takes a lot of effort to get the communication there," he said.
Local activist and former town council candidate Will Raymond said that the move wasn't exactly what he had anticipated but that he thought it could pay dividends.
"I could see maybe how this might work," said Raymond, a former chief information and technical officer who works as a software developer. "This is a great opportunity because there's a lot of work to be done."
Raymond said the idea of a department with an integrated technological capacity looking at long-term issues is something the town needs badly.
"We're very reactionary," he said.
Stancil also praised the skill Pennoyer had shown in working at another municipality that is AAA rated for bonds. The rating means independent firms have decided that municipal bonds from the town are a good investment.
While Upper Merion, located about 20 miles west of Philadelphia, doesn't have any colleges or universities, it is home to about two-thirds of Valley Forge, the historic site where George Washington made camp for a harsh-but-critical winter during the Revolutionary War and King of Prussia Mall, one of the largest shopping conglomerations in the United States.
Pennoyer held positions in two Connecticut towns before going to Upper Merion. Pennoyer, who starts Feb. 4, has worked in Durham for eight and a half years and said that he and his wife intend to stay in the area, which made the job in Chapel Hill a possibly once-in-a-lifetime chance.
Stancil said the understanding of local issues that the Norwalk, Conn. native's experience in Durham had given him will also be useful.
Pennoyer holds an undergraduate degree from Central Connecticut State University and a Master of Business Administration from Villanova University. He said he has worked in offices where finance and technology are closely linked, and Stancil was keen to mention Pennoyer's work on some technology initiatives for Durham.
Stancil said Pennoyer would work to complete ongoing technological initiatives, like downtown wireless.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
Bull's Head Bookshop will play host to a homecoming as an award-winning author, native son and UNC alumnus reads from his latest work at 3:30 p.m. today in Bull's Head Bookshop.
Robert Morgan, class of 1965 and author of "Gap Creek," will read from his recently published biography about famed American woodsman Daniel Boone.
Bull's Head manager Erica Eisdorfer said the store already has seen a lot of interest in Robert Morgan's reading of "Boone."
"I think it's because of the North Carolina connection and the sort of commerce of the area," she said. "I think it's just a great match."
In "Boone," Morgan aims to tell readers about Daniel Boone the man and examine the myths that have grown around him.
"He became probably even more of a myth than a man in his lifetime," Morgan said.
Morgan's previous offering, New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection "Gap Creek" might have impacted the success of "Boone."
The first printing of 23,000 copies has sold out already, and much of its second run of 10,000 copies has been purchased.
"It's kind of been our sleep hit this season," said Christina Gates, Morgan's publicist at Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
The book is expected to do especially well for Christmas.
Morgan, who received an honorary degree in letters from UNC last year, shows the reader a Boone who is a self-contradiction.
"I could see that he was a much more complex figure than he had seemed when I started out," Morgan said.
Morgan said this contradiction is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the relationship Boone had with American Indians.
"His great dream was to live in peace with the Indians," Morgan said. "The settlement of the West made that impossible."
Wherever Boone went, settlement followed.
"He's caught in the contradiction of his time," said Kathleen DuVal, assistant professor of history at UNC. "Daniel Boone, like a lot of other people, didn't want to choose."
One of the common myths Morgan found surrounding Boone was the idea that he was a prolific Indian killer.
"He almost always avoided fighting Indians," Morgan said. "He was not out to kill people."
Morgan used his background in fiction writing to explore that contradiction and others he discovered to form a picture of Boone that allows the reader to speculate about the many gaps in Boone's popular history.
"I tried to use what I thought I had discovered about him to create a portrait," Morgan said.
Morgan said he hopes his portrait of the man who "seemed to be born to be a woodsman the way Keats was born to be a poet" will help readers form a connection with the birth of the American republic.
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(10/15/07 4:00am)
Frank Abernethy is an Army veteran, a UNC graduate and a quadriplegic. He's also running a one-man campaign for the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.
He decided to run, he said, because he thinks the current board's efforts to protect the town's immigrant communities are letting offenders off the hook.
Abernethy accuses the board of directing Carrboro police not to check if people they detain are wanted by a wide variety of federal agencies.
Carrboro officials maintain they only ask police not to detain individuals wanted on civil detention orders from Immigration and Customs Enforcement-. Criminal detention orders are issued for people who are accused of crimes beyond being in the country illegally.
Abernethy said many people see his policy as anti-immigrant, something he said it isn't.
Instead, he said, he wants to make sure violent criminals are taken off the street.
"The Hispanic people in our community provide a vital service in our community," he said.
But he said coordination with federal authority isn't the most pressing issue the town faces.
"No, I think they need to get that dad-gummed fire station built that they promised," he said.
The town still is working on a new building for the department, designed to provide faster access to the newly annexed north Carrboro.
On the whole, Abernethy wants to make sure Carrboro stays Carrboro.
"I definitely do not want Carrboro to lose the small-town atmosphere," he said.
Like most candidates, Abernethy agrees that the town needs to encourage more commercial growth to cut the tax burden on homeowners.
He also said that he thinks the town's infrastructure needs to be expanded to better handle traffic but that he understands there are limits on what the town can support.
The former diesel mechanic moved to Carrboro in 1987. He had come to Chapel Hill in 1984 after breaking his neck.
"I came to Chapel Hill because I couldn't use my hands, so I had to start using my mind," he said.
After graduating, Abernethy worked with several different nonprofits. He won a North Carolina Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service for his efforts on behalf of the Disability Awareness Council.
Abernethy said he's not "trying to use my disability as some kind of doorway to get into the aldermen," but when asked directly, he said he thought his disability might make him a better alderman.
"My diversity is only going to help build the diversity of the aldermen."
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(10/11/07 4:00am)
Now that Carrboro's come to her, Lydia Lavelle wants a hand in the town's leadership.
Lavelle tried to get on the Board of Aldermen shortly after her neighborhood was annexed last year by applying for an open seat on the board, but didn't win the post.
Lavelle has lived in her current house for about three and a half years.
"The application process to me was more like a job interview," Lavelle said of her run for the board last year.
(09/13/07 4:00am)
CORRECTION: The cutline of the photo that ran with Thursday's front-page story "Post-fire patching" incorrectly calls the worker in the photo a firefighter. An employee of Duke Energy repaired power lines. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
Watch video: Fire destroys acres
Watch video: Local brush fires
(09/12/07 4:00am)
Watch the video
A series of brush fires burned in the Orange County area Tuesday, boosted by the region's drought.
The fires included one at Duke Forest near the intersection of Eubanks and Rogers roads and a larger blaze at Hebron Church and Ben Wilson roads, which was fought with water from a helicopter and burnt 200 acres of mostly crop fields.
(08/29/07 4:00am)
Decked out in purple-and-white Carrboro High School Jaguars T-shirts, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen heard public comment about a proposed downtown development.
The Alberta, named for a 19th-century cotton mill that once sat on the site, is a four-story building proposed for Roberson Street and Sweet Bay Place, roughly behind Armadillo Grill.
The building would house restaurants, offices, stores and residences in just more than 45,000 square feet.
The plan, proposed by Carr Mill Partners Limited, got a good review from the town advisory boards.
(08/24/07 4:00am)
A drive-by shooting in the Northside neighborhood late Wednesday has police hunting for a fugitive.
A Carrboro man and a Chapel Hill teen were wounded at the corner of Sykes Street and Gomains Avenue.
Police suspect Adrian Lamonte Foushee, 22, of Chapel Hill, in the shooting based on witness statements, Capt. Bob Overton said. Warrants were issued for Foushee for one count of attempted murder and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious bodily injury.
Foushee, whose last known address was 120 Sykes St., had argued with the Carrboro man in the past, though he wasn't living on Sykes Street at the time of the shooting, Overton said.
Witnesses said a white car pulled up to the stop sign at the intersection - which is blocks from a police substation, but out of sight- - just before 10 p.m. Police think he then opened fire with a handgun.
"It was so fast it sounded like a semiautomatic pistol," said Northside resident Ben Roberts, who was inside his house with the shades drawn during the incident.
The victim from Carrboro, who Overton said police think was the target, was shot in the upper abdomen and was listed at UNC Memorial Hospital in stable condition Thursday afternoon, a police press release stated.
The windshield of his car sustained $100 worth of damage, police reports stated.
The Chapel Hill youth, a 17-year-old, was shot in his right side, from the back, and treated and released, Overton said.
The youth does not appear to have been a target in the attack, Overton said.
"He was actually down the road a piece," he said. "He got hit by an errant bullet."
After serving in Ramadi, Iraq, with the U.S. Marines, Roberts, who lives near the site of the incident, came back to Chapel Hill to finish his degree in religious studies.
He bought a house on the corner of Sykes Street and Gomains Avenue. But after Wednesday night's incident, which occurred 50 feet from his front door, Roberts said the house will be on the market Monday.
"I've been shot at for a living," Roberts said. "I'm not going to get shot at in my own house."
Anyone with information about the shooting or the whereabouts of Foushee is asked to contact the Chapel Hill Police Department.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(08/22/07 4:00am)
County officials are debating the best way to increase taxes as a way to get extra funds.
A pair of Orange County commissioners said Tuesday night that they support a real estate transfer tax for the county, rather than an increase in sales tax.
And several members of the Board of County Commissioners expressed worries about passing the referendum necessary to implement the new tax.
"(The towns) need to come forward and help support a new revenue source if we're going to put it to the public," board chairman Moses Carey Jr. said.
Because of new state law, each county government is now allowed to request, via referendum, a .4 percent real estate transfer tax or a .25 cent sales tax increase.
Board vice chairman Barry Jacobs and commissioner Mike Nelson said during the meeting that they would prefer the transfer tax.
But Carey said a final decision on the tax shouldn't be made until sometime in the fall, so county and town officials can talk about the issue. A public hearing on the issue is scheduled for Aug. 30.
Carey also said he wants more time to communicate with voters in general.
"A month and a half is not .enough time, in my opinion, to sufficiently educate the public," he said.
County staff have looked at holding the referendums on either the Nov. 6 municipal election or the presidential primary, which will be May 6.
If any referendums are approved, the transfer tax could take effect as soon as Jan. 1 or July 1, and the sales tax could come into use as soon as April 1 or Sept. 1, 2008.
Nelson said that he thinks the May election would work better because there will be a bigger turnout with a presidential race and that the seniors who typically dominate municipal races tend to be wary of new taxes.
"I think it's a little more democratic," he said of the May contest.
County officials can put referendums on either or both taxes on the ballot. If both passed, the county government would have to choose which to implement.
The options, which county governments have long sought as alternatives to property tax increases for additional funding, faced dogged opposition in the state legislature from various commercial and development lobbies before they passed this summer.
In the 2007-08 fiscal year, the county's property tax, which is 95 cents per $100 of property value, raised more than $119.9 million, or just less than 70 percent of the total general fund budget of the county.
But the commissioners said they were not thrilled with the change. They said it came as the state was cutting other revenues, forcing them to pass a new tax just to maintain funding levels. Changes include the distribution of some state sales-tax revenues, which now will go to the areas where they are collected, and the allocation of Medicaid funding.
"That seems kind of tough to me, tough to put it on the counties to do that," commissioner Alice Gordon said.
Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(11/15/06 5:00am)
HILLSBOROUGH - Adam Stein gained on Allen Baddour in the race for a superior court judgeship when provisional ballots were counted Tuesday, but failed to overtake him.
"You never know what will happen, but we were optimistic," said Baddour, who watched Orange County's portion of the recount in Hillsborough on Tuesday afternoon.
Stein still could make a comeback Tuesday, when a recount is set to start.
Carl Fox has a lock on the other seat in the race, which includes Orange and Chatham counties, with 35.3 percent of the vote.
Fox and Baddour both are incumbents. Baddour was appointed to his seat in February by Gov. Mike Easley, and Fox was appointed last year.
Charles "Chuck" Anderson, currently a district court judge, finished last with 20.9 percent of the vote, out of range of a seat barring all but the most unforeseen circumstances.
By The Daily Tar Heel's count, Stein started Tuesday 70 votes short of Baddour's original 17,020.
After the 805 provisional ballots had been processed, The DTH figured Stein to be down 50 votes from Baddour's revised total of 17,211, a gain for Stein of 20 votes.
Almost 200 provisional ballots were thrown out for reasons including registration in the wrong state.
Stein faltered slightly when the Chatham County provisional ballots were added, but more than made up the deficit in Orange County.
"I hoped to lose less in Chatham and pick up more in Orange," he said. "I netted 20 votes, which was a little more than I had expected if I was looking at it objectively."
Stein's candidacy attracted criticism because of his age, 69, which would prevent him from serving his full term. After mandatory retirement at 72, however, he would be allowed to serve as a recall judge on an as-needed basis.
Tuesday night each camp had its own, slightly different, tally.
Baddour claimed to be up 62 votes, citing hand counts from Chatham County. And Stein claimed to trail by only 45, noting that the State Board of Elections' Web site had him only 65 votes back at the start of Tuesday.
The DTH arrived at its difference of 50 using results from the boards of elections of the individual counties.
Either way, there are still at least two chances for the numbers to shift.
Before the elections can be certified Friday, both county boards of elections must recount two precincts by hand.
If hand-counted results, which take precedence over machine-counted figures, differ enough, the county boards or the state board can order wider-ranging recounts.
Because Baddour and Stein finished within a 1-percent margin, there will be an automatic recount. Orange County will start its recount Tuesday at 9 a.m.
"We'll see what it looks like after a recount," Stein said. "It is what it is, and we'll find out in due course."
Orange County Director of Elections Barry Garner said he isn't sure how long the recount will last.
"I'd like to have it done before Thanksgiving if at all possible."
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