Dudley, NC — The man accused of shooting three Wayne County deputies on Monday morning was found dead nine hours later.
The deputies were shot while serving an involuntary commitment order, meaning someone thought the suspect was a danger to himself and needed help. at a home in the 2500 block of Arrington Bridge Road in Dudley.
Heavily armed officers from the State Highway Patrol, WCSO and surrounding agencies surrounded the home for over nine hours.
23-year-old Jourdan Hamilton was found inside the home with an apparent fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound after SWAT members entered the residence.
It’s not known at this time who filed the commitment order.
Joel Gillie, the spokesman for Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, said all 3 injured deputies are being treated at ECU Medical Center.
Gillie said late Monday that 38-year-old Sergeant Matthew Fishman is in critical condition.
Deputy Alexander Ramon Torres, 27, and Corporal Andrew Cox, 37, were said to be in stable condition.
“Right now, our thoughts and prayers are with the individuals with our department and their families and they deal with their injuries,” said Gillie.
Matthew Fishman is the son of Dave Fishman, pastor at Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Goldsboro.
The church opened its doors Monday night for those who wanted to pray for his speedy recovery.
Chachi Torres said his son, Ramon Torres, was one of the deputies shot. He said he had a “bad feeling” when he received an alert on his phone Monday morning.
“Usually, I got my phone set up for any type of news, and I had a bad feeling… my phone went off. I look at it. Boom. Wayne County Sheriff’s Office [deputies] been shot. I call everybody, and I find out one of them is my son.”
Chachi Torres said it was some of the worst news he could receive as a parent.
“I call my wife, let my wife know, my daughter. We just got in the vehicle, and we came straight to the hospital,” he said.
Ramon Torres is in good spirits, his father said.
“He’s in a little pain right now but he’s strong… He told us, he doesn’t want to see nobody, so I understand. He’s good,” said Chachi Torres.
He found out his son was shot twice, with one bullet still in place Monday night.
“One of them is in his hip. Still there,” he said. “The other went through.”
With his son stable, Ramon Torres asked for prayers for the other families impacted.
“I’m just praying for the other two. [Just] because my son is here, that doesn’t mean [I] just worry about Ramon. We worry about the other families.”
It is standard for three deputies to serve an involuntary commitment warrant, Gillie said, and deputies did not have a history with the suspect.
According to the Gun Violence Archives, there have been six incidents in NC this year where an officer was shot and injured or killed. Nationwide, the database shows there have been at least 201.
Between Jan. 1 2019 and today, North Carolina has had at least 73 incidents where an officer was shot and injured or killed. That puts our state as eighth in the nation for these types of incidents over that period of time.
During that same time period nationwide, there were more than 1180 incidents. They’ve gone up over time. From 297 in 2019, 330 in 2020 and 360 incidents reported to GVA for 2021. At this point last year, there were 190 incidents reported so we are outpacing it.
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