KERNERSVILLE, N.C. (WGHP) — A deputy with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office fatally shot a barricaded subject that took his significant other hostage on Thursday morning, according to Christina Howell, the sheriff’s office public affairs manager.
At 8:12 a.m., deputies conducted a welfare check on the 2000 block of Valleydale Lane in Kernersville after getting a report of a man sleeping in his car.
The man would later be identified as James Phillip White, Jr., 48, of Kernersville.
Investigators say that White had been sleeping in a running white Ford Fusion since around 7 a.m. and was not responsive when locals banged on the window in an effort to wake him up.
“It was a guy sitting there in the car, sitting there with his eyes closed and his mouth open,” said Heather Pack, who found White sleeping in his car along Valleydale Lane on Thursday morning.
Pack says that she’s seen White driving around the neighborhood before, but found this to be concerning.
“I felt uneasy and kind of like what the heck you know, I didn’t know what to think,” said Pack.
That concern prompted Pack to call the authorities to check on White.
“They were asking me questions like color of the car, what the guy looked like, name of the car, tag and all of that,” said Pack.
White eventually woke up and drove away before a deputy found him on Old Valley School Road. He then began to run away on foot and physically assaulted a deputy in order to get away.
Deputies say White then ran into his “nearby house” and barricaded himself inside. His significant other was in the home at the time and she reportedly texted neighbors saying that he would not let her out.
The sheriff’s office’s Tactical High Risk Apprehension Team and crisis negotiators were then called to the scene and neighboring homes were evacuated by deputies out of caution.
White had “multiple outstanding orders for arrest out of Guilford County,” according to Howell.
THRAT gave White multiple orders to come out but he refused and barricaded himself in a room with his significant other, according to deputies. THRAT decided to breach the door of the home and enter, at which point White “came at” deputies with a sledgehammer.
Deputies reportedly unsuccessfully used stun guns and one deputy fired a single shot that struck White. Deputies immediately began to render aid to White and performed life-saving measures until EMS arrived.
White was taken to a local hospital where he would succumb to his injuries and was pronounced deceased.
Investigators say that the significant other was not harmed.
“We give our condolences but as we always say, we will protect the community,” said Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough.
“It is hard to digest down, it is devastating to hear something like that, he is just sitting in the car and then he is dead,” said Pack.
The State Bureau of Investigation will be independently investigating the fatal shooting and the sheriff’s office will conduct an internal administrative investigation to ensure that policy was followed.
The involved deputy has been placed on administrative leave, as is standard procedure.
There is no further information available at this time.
