"Exonerated" shooter, "violence interrupter" back in prison | Garner shooting was road rage by gangbanger, feds say | Hypocritical "racism" fit over Durham superintendent's title

No. 165 — Feb. 22-Feb. 28, 2026

Mar 02, 2026

The shooting of a man found dead in his vehicle in Garner was a case of road rage, according to the feds, while a Raleigh Police report reveals additional details about the alleged killer’s apprehension after shooting two SWAT officers.

A Republican voter was arrested and charged after removing a sign associating Michele Morrow with January 6th at an Apex early voting location, though doubt and confusion abound.

A landslide of racism allegations have hit the president of the Durham teacher’s union after she publicly called the Durham Public Schools superintendent by his first name, in response to him doing the same to her.

The story’s too absurd to be anything but true: a criminal convicted of shooting a Durham police officer was “exonerated” and released less than halfway through his sentence, hired as a “violence interrupter” by a city-county partnership, got subsequent drug charges dropped by the DA, and is now back in prison after a federal task force caught him selling cocaine and fentanyl.

Chapel Hill has declined to follow the footsteps of Carrboro and Durham in adopting a resolution prohibiting immigration enforcement from accessing town “workplaces” without judicial warrant.

Feds reveal road rage as alleged motive in Garner murder

5-Day Report from Raleigh Police Reveals More About Officer-Involved Shooting During Arrest of Garner Murder Suspect - CBS17

Raleigh Police Release Report Detailing Gunfire Exchange Involving Garner Murder Suspect - ABC11

Man Who Shot at Raleigh Officers Faces Federal Charges - WRAL

Alleged Road Rage Murderer Faces Federal Charges - USAO EDNC Press Release

Additional information regarding the gangbanger charged with shooting two Raleigh SWAT officers serving a warrant for the killing of a father of five in Garner has been revealed over the past week, including a motive for the killing based on the alleged murderer’s own words.

According to the five-day report which is compiled by the Raleigh Police Department for officer-involved shootings, members of the RPD’s Selective Enforcement Unit forced entry into the apartment of Solomon Owens, 26, on February 19 after knocking on the door and announcing their presence to serve a homicide-related search warrant from the Garner Police.

However, when the officers opened the door, Owens opened fire with an “AR-style pistol chambered in 300 Blackout,” which appears to be the firearm he also had an active warrant for having stolen.

Owens fired ten shots, one of which struck an officer in his ballistic helmet and another three of which struck another officer’s ballistic shield.

One officer fired two shots in response; although it was initially believed that the injuries to Owens during this arrest were caused by this return fire, the report concludes that they were sustained later in the arrest.

After the officers took cover, Owens emerged from the apartment with an adult female and a small child; one of the officers was able to “immobilize” Owens with a less-lethal 40mm sponge grenade.

However, additional details were revealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, which is charging Owens in federal court for the unlawful possession of the firearm he allegedly used to shoot the Raleigh officers.

According to the press release, Owens told a witness that he had fatally shot Joseph “Joey” Adams in Garner on February 9 because he wouldn’t let Owens change lanes: “He wouldn’t let me over, so I handled it.”

Owens’ previous convictions included plotting gang-related murders in Warren County, as well as robbing a Circle K in Durham while on probation.

Owens is being held without bond, and faces up to the death penalty.

Previous Coverage:

Raleigh SWAT officers shot while arresting gangbanger felon ID’d as killer of Garner father (No. 164 — Feb. 21, 2026)

Republican voter charged with removing anti-Morrow sign in Apex

Ivy Lynn Dearman, 67, has been charged with unlawfully removing a political sign outside the voting site at Apex Town Campus, which court documents incorrectly described as belonging to Andi Morrow, a Democrat challenging the incumbent Republican representing Onslow County in the state senate.

In actuality, the sign Dearman was captured on camera removing was a homemade “anti-Morrow” sign reading “Michele Morrow was at January 6th,” which had been recycled for Michele Morrow’s current campaign in the GOP primary for the open seat in the US Senate.

(Morrow participated in all three “Stop the Steal” rally in DC following the 2020 election, but did not enter the Capitol.)

According to Morrow, the woman who removed the sign did not believe it qualified as a “political sign” protected by NC GS § 136-32, which defines the term as “any sign that advocates for political action.”

Durham superintendent hypocritically complains about “racial connotation” of first-name usage

DAE president apologizes for calling Durham schools superintendent by first name - N&O

DPS superintendent cites racial history, calls for ‘reset’ following DAE incident - N&O

DAE president’s comments to superintendent spark backlash - 9th Street Journal

It’s been over a year since the Durham Public Schools Board of Education approved a pro-union “Meet and Confer” policy mandating regular meetings between district leadership and the Durham Association of Educators (and any other qualifying “employee representative organization”), but it doesn’t appear to be going so well.

According to the publicly available livestream of a February meeting of the Meet and Confer Committee, DAE President Mika Twietmeyer was criticizing the administration’s lack of responsiveness when superintendent Dr. Anthony Lewis interrupted her as his side of the committee got up to leave: “Mika, we’re done, the meeting is over.”

After a pause, Twietmeyer reponded: “Thank you, Anthony.”

Various black Durhamites immediately came out to paint her use of the PhD-holder’s first name in a racial light, such as “diminish[ing] a Black man’s accomplishments” from school board chair Bettina Umstead, “racialized” by vice-chair Millicent Rogers, and “racial diminishment” in a letter from nationally-recognized “anti-racist” activist Ronda Taylor Bullock.

In turn, the president of the far left teachers’ union apologized, admitting the “harmful racial dynamics that [her] actions brought into play.”

However, the video shows that prior to Lewis’ interruption and use of Twietmeyer’s own first name, she had referred to him by his honorific title.

Although Lewis promised to “continue to practice respect and humility” in his own statement on the situation, published as an op-ed after her apology, he continued the attacks by associating her behavior with slavery and Jim Crow era practices, while making no apology on his own part for whatever absence of “respect” she was merely reflecting back at him.

“Exonerated” criminal back in prison after returning to crime

Judge rebukes former Durham ‘violence interrupter’ turned drug dealer - N&O

A Durham man who was released from prison after being “exonerated” of shooting a police officer in 2007 and later got drug charges dropped by the Durham District Attorney after complaining of “targeting” has now been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison after he was caught as part of a ring selling cocaine and fentanyl.

In 2007, Durham police officer D.B. Vereen was shot in the arm and the back while responding to a burglary in progress, with police identifying 24-year-old Kevin Johnson and 22-year-old David Williams as the suspects.

After being arrested, Johnson was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 33 years in prison, with evidence including the implication by his co-defendant.

However, in 2023, with the assistance of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, Johnson had his conviction vacated and a new trial ordered. Among the evidence considered was the fact that in 2020, Williams had signed a statement claiming that he had lied about Johnson’s involvement, yet when forced to testify for the appeal he reverted to his original story.

After the Durham District Attorney’s Office declined to try Johnson a second time, he was hired by the as a “violence interrupter” by Bull City United, a program funded by the City of Durham and Durham County with the aim of reducing crime.

Months after his release, Johnson was arrested and charged with possession of drugs and guns, which Durham Police found at his home. However, Johnson’s NCCAI lawyer Christine Mumma claimed the arrest was retaliatory, and that Johnson had been “on such a positive track” since his release.

The Durham DA dismissed the charges, but denied they were “targeted.”

Less than a year later, in September 2024, Johnson was caught selling 3 oz. of cocaine to an undercover officer, and was surveilled over the following months by the federal Raleigh Durham Safe Streets Task Force as he sold cocaine and fentanyl.

Johnson was among at least ten charged federally as part of a conspiracy to traffic these drugs, which included Khuram Choudhry, who had been released early after Durham DA Satana Deberry agreed in 2019 to a downgrade of his first degree murder conviction for the killing of Rana Shazad Ahmed, for which Choudhry had been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

At his sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to four out of ten charges he was facing, Johnson claimed that he had “tried” to keep his life on track after losing his job in the post-release arrest, but turned to selling drugs when he was unable to find a job.

The federal judge was not sympathetic to Johnson’s excuses, and sentenced him to 17 years in prison.

Chapel Hill council declines to take up ICE workplace training resolution - N&O

The Chapel Hill Town Council has declined to adopt a 4th Amendment Workplace resolution, previously passed by Carrboro and Durham, to prevent immigration officials from entering any “workplace” controlled by the municipality without a judicial warrant.

The Fourth Amendment Workplaces movement is a project of the anti-immigration enforcement organization Siembra NC, which boasts over two hundred employers across the state who have signed on.

Although the Chapel Hill government has shown itself to be strongly on the side of opposing immigration enforcement, Mayor Jess Anderson cited the complexity of the situation in the council’s decision to decline to take up the resolution at a Wednesday meeting.