Shots fired in Ayden inspire march for safety

AYDEN — The sound of gunfire in her neighborhood late last month upset an Ayden town commissioner so much that she organized a neighborhood march on Aug. 3 to spotlight safety issues.

Commissioner Sarah Connor, who lives in Kennedy Estates on Allen Drive, said she was relaxing at home with her husband on July 28 about 10 p.m. when she heard gunshots. After she thought the barrage was over, another round of shots was fired.

“It paralyzed my husband and I, but we finally got ourselves together and met somewhere in the middle of the house. We both said (we needed) to call the police,” Connor said. “I don’t know who called the police (before we did) but before we knew it, the neighborhood was swarming with policemen.”

After a long, stressful night, Connor said she and her husband went to sleep shortly before daybreak. When they finally woke up, her husband went out and looked at his truck as part of his regular routine. That was when he noticed bullet holes.

“Upon examining the truck, he found one that was on the passenger side, one on the front hood, two bullets which landed inside the vehicle and one landed in the motor,” said Connor. “The vehicle is now in the shop and we don’t know the extent of the damage.

“But the entire ordeal just frightened us because we don’t know who fired the shots and if the shots were intended for us, so it’s a scary situation,” she said.

Connor said Kennedy Estates is one of the older neighborhoods in Ayden and her family has lived there more than 50 years.

“I raised my kids here, everybody basically knew everybody, and anytime you needed a favor you could just ask your neighbor and they gladly provided,” said Connor. “But now it’s entirely different, you must have security alarms and cameras and all kinds of precautions because you don’t know what might happen to you or your property.”

The march, an effort to promote safety and give residents a new tool to fight crime, included three Ayden police officers. Mayor Ivory Mewborn and commissioners Brian Newell and Raymond Langley joined Connor and one other resident to walk the neighborhood and speak to residents about the E-Z Call program.

Mayor Ivory Mewborn said E-Z Call is a strong deterrent to crime in the community or across North Carolina if implemented properly.

“I’m here as mayor, God bless those that came before me, but it’s a new day and I’m here to protect our citizens,” said Mewborn.

E-Z Call uses a card that can be put in a wallet or attached to a key chain. It has a special phone number the police use to track down crime. Every tip that comes in is anonymous. Ayden spent $1,000 to print about 2,000 cards.

“The program is designed to complement all statewide community policing initiatives and sends a strong message to potential criminals that they can no longer conduct unlawful activities in our city and neighborhoods,” Mewborn said.

E-Z Call enables any suspicious activity within city limits to be reported instantly and effectively, he said.

“It’s not the 911 line, it’s not the CrimeStoppers line, and it’s not the AD line, it’s anonymous and that’s the way this thing works,” Mewborn said.

Mewborn said criminals are always on the lookout to see who’s connected and what they can get away with, adding that many people are intimidated and fearful of retaliation for coming forward to report unlawful activity.

“That’s one reason they do the intimidation thing — saying snitches get stitches and end up in ditches — and all this stuff because they can usually single out a person,” he said. “But with this program you can’t.”

Residents who would like to pick up an E-Z Call card can get them at the Ayden police station or any business in downtown Ayden.

Connor said that this is at least the third instance of gunfire this year in Ayden, and that there is a $1,000 reward posted for any information helping to identify who is responsible.