By Joe Gamm
News & Record
GREENSBORO, NC — A 26-year-old Greensboro man’s 94-minute crime spree left six people injured before police officers shot him Tuesday, police said.
Isaiah Jurel Fox of 810 Dillard St. remained hospitalized Wednesday in stable condition, Police Capt. Mike Richey said.
Police say Fox assaulted women and seniors and threatened to kill a child.
Detectives R.E. Ferrell and W.C. Tyndall shot Fox at 4:16 p.m. on Tuesday, ending what police described as a “crime spree” that involved at least nine crime scenes. Fox was taken to a hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to his torso, Richey said. Police expected him to be released Wednesday, but hospital officials held him for another day.
Fox is under armed guard, Richey said.
He faces a charge of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. At least 20 more charges are pending, Richey said.
“This was just a sudden spree that just snowballed,” he said. “All of this just happened in about an hour and a half.”
Police gave the following account:
It started at 2:42 p.m. at TJ Maxx, 4217 W. Wendover Ave., where a loss prevention officer later told police he tried to stop Fox from stealing some items. Fox hit the officer in the face and threatened to hurt him more.
Fox then got into a Dodge driven by Charles Anthony Walker Jr. of 4811 Silver Briar Court, Apt. C, and sped away.
About a mile away on West Market Street, at 2:53 p.m., a female officer saw the suspect’s vehicle and pulled it over. Walker was taken into custody without incident, but Fox ran. The officer couldn’t chase Fox because she was taking Walker in alone.
Walker remains jailed on charges of common law robbery and felony conspiracy. He is being held without bail on a parole violation.
“After the initial stop, (Fox) tried to flee the area,” Richey said.
Fox ran from the stop, convinced that police were after him. At 3:21 p.m., he tried to steal an occupied car from a woman on Thorton Court.
“He struck her in the head,” Richey said, “and beat her face into the concrete.”
She did not require “long-term care” for her injuries.
Fox failed to steal the woman’s car and ran again.
He fled through a neighborhood, demanding residents give him their car keys and mobile phones.
At 3:24 p.m., he confronted an elderly female at her home on Tennus Lane. He forced her into the home, demanded her vehicle keys, threatened to kill her and assaulted her by pushing her to the floor, which injured her wrist. He left the home in the victim’s Kia.
Fox drove onto the golf course at Starmount Forest Country Club, near Waycross Drive. He hit a golfer, breaking one of the man’s legs. The victim remains hospitalized.
Fox continued several hundred feet before abandoning the Kia near Staunton Drive.
Break-ins, car thefts and assaults are usually dispatched on different radio frequencies to specific officers. But a dispatcher realized early on that the sudden volume of incidents may be related.
“This was an escalating and more-and-more deadly situation,” Richey said. “One of our communicators realized it was all connected. He brought it all together.”
Dispatchers narrowed the calls down to two frequencies. Up to 90 officers eventually became involved.
Fox continued to run.
Police think that about four minutes after he hit the golfer, Fox broke into another house and took a Toyota 4Runner from an elderly man at gunpoint. He collided with a car with multiple occupants at Murrow Boulevard and Market Street. With the SUV disabled, Fox once again decided to run — this time toward City View Apartments, near Gorrell Street.
He entered a home, threatened the occupants at gunpoint and demanded a vehicle, but he left without getting the keys.
“The suspect tried to take a car from someone who just drove up,” Richey said.
Then he ran to the backyard of a home on Gorrell Street and confronted a mother and child at 4:08 p.m.
He grabbed the small child and threatened to kill him if the mother did not give him her keys and cellphone. The child broke away and ran to the mother, who protected him while Fox beat her.
The mother and child both suffered minor injuries.
Police were closing in as Fox took the woman’s keys and drove to McAdoo Avenue and Murray Street.
He forced his way into a home on McAdoo Avenue at 4:14 p.m., threatened the resident, and demanded his keys. He again failed to take the victim’s car.
Outside, witnesses directed police to Fox, who was moving toward Sues Blues Alley.
He confronted police. At 4:16 p.m., the detectives fired, hitting him at least once.
Per department policy, Ferrell and Tyndall have been placed on administrative duty while investigations continue.
The Greensboro Police Department’s Professional Standards Division is investigating whether the officers acted according to department policies.
The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting, to determine if the uses of force fell under state law.
Normally, Professional Standards conducts the criminal investigation into police shootings. The SBI is called in cases where a suspect dies.
Police called in the SBI in this case because the detectives involved work for the department that would normally investigate a non-fatal shooting.
Also, Fox was listed in critical condition and his prognosis was poor, said Greensboro police spokeswoman Susan Danielsen.
Police have not released the names of any victims.
“All of the victims are still incredibly scared of this gentleman and his partner,” Danielsen said. “For their well being, we’re not releasing that information.”
Although police have identified nine crime scenes, there may be more, Richey said.
People might have arrived at home and found that someone had tried to break in, he said.
Police have also not released all the 911 calls connected to the spree.
Dispatchers received many calls, he said. Police are still sorting through them.
“In a lot of cases, we don’t get a lot of witness help,” he said. “Citizens — the community did step forward and called.”
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