PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A New Hanover County Sheriff’s Deputy and another man face charges, after an incident over the weekend in Pender County.
The incident involved the family of a Laney High School senior.
The family speaking out Friday, about the incident that left them shocked.
“Motherly instinct to protect my son,” Monica Shepard said. “They weren’t going to get past me to get to him.”
Shepard and her son Dameon never expected to be greeted at their Pender County home with that scene Sunday night.
“I was playing my video games as usual and I hear a banging on the door,” Dameon Shepard said.
Dameon said he opened the door to find 15 people, some holding guns, including an off-duty deputy from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office at his doorstep.
“They came to my door and said they were looking for a missing girl, they were given my address and my name and that they were going to come in and look for her,” Dameon said.
Despite the graduation sign in the front yard, clearly showing he had a different name, Dameon said they kept pushing. He said he tried to tell them his name, holding his ground. That’s when his mom jumped in.
“And he stated it again, ‘Well I’m just going to step inside and close the door and talk to you guys.’ And I said, ‘No you’re not,'” Monica Shepard said.
That’s when Shepard said that deputy stuck his foot in the door trying to push his way in.
“I’m just like ‘My name is Dameon. My name is Dameon. I go to Laney High School. I graduated. My sign’s on the lawn,” Dameon said.
Finally, they said the group left, and Shepard called the Pender County Sheriff’s Office.
That former deputy, Jordan Kita, is now charged with failure to discharge duties of his office, forcible trespass and breaking and entering.
District Attorney Ben David announced on Friday that Kita had been terminated from the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.
“One thing we absolutely make certain of, is that anyone who’s violating the law be treated the same,” District Attorney Ben David said.
“We didn’t want to rush any hasty decisions,” Pender County Sheriff Alan Cutler said. “We wanted to make an informed decision. The situation was defused, and we didn’t feel like there was any further threat that evening.”
Still shaken, Shepard said things could’ve ended much differently.
“It didn’t go that way, and just thankful it turned out the way it did,” Monica Shepard said.
Another man in the group that night, Robert Wood, is charged with going armed to the terror of the public.
David said there is some relation between the now former deputy and the missing girl the group was looking for, but said he could not go into detail.