No Police Record of Incident With Candidate

There is no police record of an alleged incident between Whiteville Police and mayoral hopeful Brittany Payne, officials said today.

In an Instagram reel, Payne claimed that she was harassed by a Whiteville Police officer after a fellow patron called 911 at the San Juan restaurant in June. Payne said in the reel that she, her fiancé and two friends were having dinner and drinks at the bar, and had spent around “$1,000”.

“Here comes the police trying to arrest us,” she said in the video. “Entrapment. Can you say entrapment?”

Payne did not return a request for comment when the video began being shared last week.

Whiteville Police Chief Paul Rockenbach said he spoke with officers, checked records, call logs, incident reports and body cam footage, and found no evidence of the incident Payne described. There was no record of any WPD officer having contact with Payne at the time she said she was harassed, Rockenbach said.

“There wasn’t even a 911 call to the establishment on the day in question,” he said. “We take any statement like this very seriously, but there is no evidence anything a Whiteville officer had any contact with her.”

Payne, Mike Shachnuk, Brandon Acker and incumbent Terry Mann are running for mayor of Whiteville. Whiteville City councilman Josh Harris is reportedly running a write-in campaign for the post.