After four murders in two years and dozens of violent crimes, a superior Court Judge on Friday granted a nuisance abatement order against Sandy Ridge Apartments in Whiteville.
Whiteville Police and Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) officers in tactical gear were at Sandy Ridge Apartments Friday within hours of the court action. The officers explained the nuisance abatement order to residents and secured the apartment’s office.
The order was filed against Sandy Ridge Apartment’ owners and management company, One Management Inc. Court documents identify George Marshall and Thomas Urquhart as principal defendants.
District Attorney Jon David requested the order on behalf of the city.
Judge James Hardin approved the nuisance action Friday in a special session of Columbus County Civil Superior Court. A hearing for a preliminary injunction is set for Friday at 10 a.m. At that point, the owners will be called before the court to discuss the ongoing problems at Sandy Ridge, and their proposed solutions.
The temporary restraining order filed Friday prohibits new tenants from the complex, unless approved by the court. It also gives law enforcement the right to ask anyone on the premises for identification and proof of residency. Non-residents could be charged with trespassing. Visitors are also prohibited.
Marshall and Urquhart are also prohibited from disposing of the property unless allowed by the courts.
At last week’s City Council meeting, Whiteville Police Chief Douglas Ipock said the management company had “basically abandoned” the property. H went down a list of problems, including refusal to make repairs, poor lighting, overgrown shrubbery and the lack of an onsite manager or security. The owners of the property had complained that Sandy Ridge was unsafe for a manager or security, but stopped short of officially asking WPD to take over security there.
Ipock said patrols have been increased at Sandy Ridge in recent weeks. The Oct. 25 killing of Tony Jayshawn Baker occurred minutes after officers had made a regular sweep through the parking lot and complex.
“We can’t be everywhere all the time,” Ipock said. “We do emphasize some areas more than others, based on the number of calls.”
The apartment complex has been a troublespot for years. Some apartments still bear unrepaired bulletholes and broken windows from shooting incidents that occurred earlier this year.
Between January 2018 and May 2021, police responded to 29 calls involving gunfire at the complex. Officers have regularly been surrounded by large crowds and pelted with rocks and other objects while trying to make arrests there.
Sandy Ridge came under extra scrutiny from the city after a shooting there in May sent children and adults scrambling from nearby Nolan Park. A pregnant woman and a man were injured in that incident. Robert Avant and Dashad Maultsby were charged in that shooting incident.
Baker was killed Monday in what has been described as a shootout at Sandy Ridge Apartments in Whiteville. Baker was the fourth person shot and killed at the complex since January 2017.
An Elizabethtown man, Cavon Jones, found shot to death at the Nolan Park Recreation Center in September 2019, a few hundred yards from Sandy Ridge, may have been fleeing a dispute at the complex when he was killed. No one has been arrested in Jones’ killing.
Diondi Xavier Sadler was shot to death at Sandy Ridge on July 30, 2019. A father and son were charged in that killing. Sadler had been shot and wounded several weeks before during a fight at a parking lot on Whiteville.
Bobby Lee Johnson of Fair Bluff was shot to death in December 2017 at the complex. His murder remains unsolved. Johnson sustained multiple gunshot wounds at an apartment there.
It remains to be seen exactly what will happen to the complex.
Whiteville Police could be called on to provide additional security at the facility. Sandy Ridge reportedly has a number of code enforcement violations which could be enforced by the city. The courts could order the complex sold, seized or torn down.
