Authorities are holding one of the two suspects involved in a New Year’s Day shootout with two West Virginia police officers on $500,000 bail.
Police say Eric Campbell, 21, appeared in court Friday charged, along with his father, with wounding the two officers during a traffic stop. The stop occurred hours after he and his father allegedly killed a North Carolina couple and set their home on fire in what authorities were calling a senseless act of random violence.
Lewisburg Police Lt. Jeromy Dove and rookie police officer Nichoals Sams were released from the hospital Friday. A criminal complaint filed in Greenbrier Count Magistrate Court said Dove was shot in the chest and neck while Sams shot in the back and grazed in the head, the Charleston Gazette reported.
The two officers were shot after they pulled over an SUV that had been reported stolen in North Carolina. Campbell was behind the wheel and when he stopped, a red pickup being driven by his father also stopped.
The complaint said Edward Campbell, 54, got out of the pickup, approached the SUV and started firing a .38 caliber revolver at the officers. The officers, who were wearing bullet-proof vests, returned fire and hit the elder Campbell in the leg. He remained hospitalized Friday. Like his son, he is being charged with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer, Fox 10 in Clarksburg reported Friday.
Cops apprehended father and son shortly after the shooting. The younger Campbell tried to flee in the pickup. His mug shot shows his face bruised and swollen. Police said they don't know how he was injured but said he did drive his vehicle off the road downhill into a ravine.
Dove’s wife said her husband called her from the scene. “The only thing he said to me was, ‘I’ve been shot. I’m fine. I’m going to the hospital in an ambulance,’” Carrie Dove told the Associated Press. “That’s the worse call a policeman’s wife can ever dream of.”
During a search of the pickup, authorities said they found two bodies hidden under a mattress. They said the bodies were those of Jerome Faulkner, 73, and his wife, Dora Faulkner, 62.
FOX 10 reported that the Campbells allegedly broke into the Faulkner’s home in Oxford early New Year’s Day, burned it and killed them.
“These two individuals represent the face of evil and have no regard for human life,” Lewisburg Police Chief Tim Stover said at a press conference Friday.
Authorities said the father and son fled with the Faulkners after taking their SUV and pickup.
WRAL-TV in Raleigh reported Friday that the Faulkner and his wife were apparent random victims.
The station said friends, family and neighbors packed the Mountain Creek Baptist Church in Oxford Friday evening to remember the couple.
Jerome Faulkner was a retired chief of the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department in Oxford. His wife was a registered nurse.
“When you’d meet them, they had a smile on their face, and they always said something to make you feel good,” Zelodis Jay told the station.
WRAL said Edward Campbell jumped bail Dec. 18 in an assault case in Texas. He faced prosecution for allegedly attacking his wife with a firearm in September.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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