Public Safety

  Less than 36 hours after a fight and shootout at Functionz Venue and Lounge, multiple safety violations shut the doors on a downtown Whiteville business. “During my inspection I found conditions that constitute a clear and inimical threat to human life, safety and health,” City Fire Marshal Hal Lowder Jr. wrote in a letter to Tamika McCray, operator of Functionz. Multiple gunmen traded shots outside the business...

Only one of 26 vape and tobacco shops raided in Brunswick County last week had no contraband, according to the BCSO. A multiagency sweep of the businesses turned up hundreds of pounds of drugs, including psychedelic mushrooms, marijuana, THC gummies, and illegal vape products. The investigation started after a child overdosed on THC gummies last summer. Many of the drugs seized in the stores were packaged in a...

Moments before midnight Sunday, shots damaged a home on Sidney Cherry Grove Road. The sheriff’s office said deputies were dispatched to the home in the 3000 block at 11:53 p.m. The residents of the home advised that they were in bed and heard two loud noises like gunshots, and observed a car driving away. A reported boyfriend of a 16-year-old girl in the house as suspected in the...