Sheriff’s deputies shot; 1 is killed, 1 wounded
BOONE, N.C. >> A North Carolina sheriff’s deputy died and another was wounded in a shooting that prompted a daylong standoff Wednesday that dragged into the night with law enforcement officers surrounding a home, authorities said.
The Watauga County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that deputies were dispatched to a home in Boone at 9:44 a.m. after the homeowner and his family didn’t report to work or answer telephone calls. The deputies entered the home and were fired upon, according to the news release.
Watauga County Sheriff Len Hagaman said Sgt. Chris Ward died at a hospital in Johnson City, Tennessee, where he was taken after being removed from the house. The second deputy, identified as K-9 Deputy Logan Fox, was still at the scene of the standoff in an unknown medical condition late Wednesday, Hagaman said.
The conditions of the other people in the house weren’t known Wednesday night. The sheriff’s office said law enforcement officers had surrounded the home and residents in the vicinity of the standoff had been evacuated. The shooter remained active on the scene, the news release said.
Approximately 15 law-enforcement agencies, including the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the N.C. State Highway Patrol, responded to the standoff.
Clarence Wilson, 78, was on the porch of his home in Boone when sheriff’s deputies pulled up in front of the house across the street. Gunfire erupted after the deputies arrived, Wilson said.
“Then they told me to get back in the house and stay,” he said.