BURGAW It’s been a tough year for 63-year-old veteran Bruce Benson.
In April he was laid off from his management job at a calibration lab due to the Covid-19 pandemic, then informed he wouldn’t be coming back to work. In May one of his best friends, a Vietnam veteran, fell and broke his back. He said he spent several months driving back and forth to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital, helping him and his wife adjust to his paralysis from the waist down.
But the dagger came on a stormy Saturday morning in mid-August, when deputies with the Pender County Sheriff’s Office pulled onto his driveway in response to a welfare call that was made because Benson hadn’t attended a scheduled church event earlier that morning. One of the responding deputies attended the same church and knew Benson, according to the PCSO.
Robert James Rowell, 23, of Rew Close, appeared before the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court last Tuesday. He admitted drink driving, taking a motor vehicle without the owner s consent, and using a motor vehicle without insurance. Ann Smout, prosecuting, said on November 7, 2020, Rowell was driving while over the prescribed alcohol limit. He registered 86 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath when the legal limit is 35. Mrs Smout said a couple had been asleep in their Ventnor home, near the junction of Trinity Road and Madeira Road, when they heard an almighty bang outside. When they looked out of the window, they saw a VW Touran had crashed into their house, and saw a young man Rowell walking away.
Edward Gero did a double-take Monday at his Bethesda, Md. home.
In a neighborhood minutes from Washington, D.C., he s expected to see an increase in law enforcement in advance of Wednesday s inauguration. Just not from North Carolina.
So it piqued his interest when he saw around five New Hanover County Sheriff s vehicles drive by one way, then at least 15 the other. I ve lived here about 30 years and kind of know what s going on, said Gero, a longtime acting professor at George Mason University. This was like a motorcade.
Members of the New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties sheriff’s offices are all on the ground near Washington, D.C. ahead of the historic event that will be watched by the world.
Ronald Lee ‘Ron’ Rowell
TOANO Ronald Lee “Ron” Rowell was born Oct. 3, 1960, to Alice and James Rowell Sr. and entered into eternal sleep Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, at Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center.
Raised in the Williamsburg area, Ron was educated in Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools and graduated from Lafayette High School. He worked as a custodian for the Charles City Public School System. His vibrant personality and willingness to help everyone caused anyone who came in contact with him to love him.
On Jan. 12, 2013, Ronald and Yvette Carter were joined in holy matrimony.
Ron loved his friends, but he especially loved his family. He made sure that his family was taken care of even if it meant walking from Toano to Charles City to see about his precious baby girl.
At a press conference on Nov. 12, Pender County Sheriff Alan Cutler confirmed the two died in a fatal shooting incident. Greene was found inside the home and Coley was found outside.
The sheriff s office has investigated five homicides this year, including the three homicides in this case, according to Sanders. The other two homicides are considered solved with arrests being made.
These three homicides are the only ones that remain open, Sanders wrote.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also actively assisting in the investigation, according to Sanders. The ATF is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person or people involved.