Abby, a friendly 4-year old pit bull mix, barked for so long at a seemingly empty Randolph County, North Carolina, barn that neighbors dialed 911. When police responded to the scene they discovered a suspected shooter inside who is thought to have wounded two North Carolina police officers several hours earlier.
Thirty-six-year-old James Lee Ashley shot Detective Jonathan Chriscoe, 33, in the chest and Deputy Edward Slafky, 38, in the chest and leg while was he being questioned after they had stopped his car in Randleman, according to Fox8.
The incident took place near the intersection of U.S. 311 and U.S. 220. Both officers shot back but missed. Chriscoe stopped Ashley’s car, a Kia Rio, because it looked like a car used in a number of break-ins in Guilford and Randolph counties, according to news reports. Two passengers besides Ashley were in the car.
Ashley was described as a “violent and dangerous” felon by Randolph County Sheriff Maynard Reid Jr. The suspect was wanted in connection with a number of home invasions and serious assaults, one on an elderly woman.
After the shooting, Ashley ran into the woods and sought refuge in the barn which was about a mile from where the shooting had occurred.
Other police had been searching for several hours for the suspect when the dog seemed to perceive something was not right in the barn and started barking. Abby’s owner Michelle Williams said her dog began to bark non-stop outside the seemingly empty structure.
After the police discovered Ashley inside the barn, they arrested him and took him to Randolph County Jail where he was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault on a law enforcement officer with a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Before the suspect was arrested, police said a handgun and shell casings were found near the scene of the shooting. The two wounded deputies were reported to be in stable condition.
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