• A Whiteville man isn’t charged after defending himself with shotgun against brothers of his former girlfriend who shatter his front door with piece of metal Monday night.
By BOB HIGH
Forty-two-year-old Craig Williamson hasn’t been charged for critically injuring one man and wounding a second with two shotgun blasts Monday night during an attempt to enter his home along Bright’s Lake Road north of Whiteville.
“Right now, we don’t intend to bring any charges. The man was defending his home from the evidence we have given to the district attorney’s staff,” Sheriff’s Detective Capt. Bobby Benton said Wednesday.
Daryl Glenn Key, 46, of the 5000 block of N.C. 130, Whiteville – brother of Williamson’s ex-girlfriend – is in Columbus Regional Healthcare recovering from wounds to his left side and internal organs after the shooting that ended with a standoff between Williamson and law enforcement.
Key’s brother Chris Laverne Posey, 36, who lives at the same N.C. 130 address, was treated for some shotgun pellet wounds to his torso at the local hospital and released Monday night.
Key and Posey are brothers of Karen Posey Register, 40, who now lives along Soles Road southeast of Whiteville after moving out of Williamson’s home last weekend.
Standoff
The standoff began following the shooting when Williamson cut off all the lights in his home at the end of the dead-end road and would not communicate with officers. The sheriff’s SWAT team was called and the Highway Patrol responded to the situation with troopers trained in a hostage situation.
Capt. Benton was called to the scene about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday and after some conversation with Williamson managed to get him to come out of the home unarmed.
“He didn’t want any officers rushing into his home disturbing any evidence of the forced entry,” Benton said. “I assured him that we would preserve the crime scene and he came out without a problem.”
Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. David Nobles said a piece of metal that appeared to be a hub of a vehicle axle was found on the floor of Williamson’s living room. This was identified by Williamson as the item used to shatter his front glass door.
Williamson told Nobles that he was at home alone lying on his couch and watching a news program from a Wilmington TV station shortly after 10 p.m. when he heard something hit his front glass door.
Door shattered
Nobles said Williamson ran to his bedroom and got a single-shot 12-gauge shotgun and grabbed two shells. By the time he returned to his living room, the metal object had shattered the front door.
Williamson fired once through the front door at males he saw on his front porch, then fired a second shot through an adjacent window. Nobles said it’s not clear if the first or second shot hit Key in his left side and it’s not known at this point which shot caused injury to Posey, the second brother of the estranged girlfriend.
Sheriff’s Deputy Adam Coleman’s report shows he interviewed Posey, and the brothers’ story about the shooting is different.
The report noted:
Posey and Key went to Williamson’s home to get their sister’s belongings. Posey said Key knocked on the door while Posey stood back on the porch. Posey heard a gun go off and he was hit in the back by the shot through a window.
Posey and Key began running and Key was hit by a second shot in the left side.
Belongings missing
Karen Posey Register told the deputy Monday night that she had moved out of Williamson’s home “a couple of days ago,” and broke up the relationship about 8:30 a.m. Monday.
Register went to Williamson’s home Monday morning to get her personal items and she told the deputy that Williamson wouldn’t give them to her. She obtained a sheriff’s deputy and went to the home, and she looked through the home but could find none of her items.
Register told Deputy Coleman she went to obtain a civil order on Williamson and went to the home of her brothers. The two men asked Register if she wanted them to talk to Williamson and Register replied, “No.”
Telephone calls by a reporter to the Posey and Key home were not answered Wednesday.