CHARLOTTE, N.C. — We're learning more about how the suspect in Monday's deadly shooting was out of prison despite a long rap sheet across our state, including charges in Alamance County. The CBS station in Charlotte, WBTV, obtained the court records for the last time Terry Hughes Jr. was arrested there back in 2021.
WBTV says the documents show he was referred to an *optional* drug recovery program in exchange for dropping several drug charges, including intent to distribute marijuana. There are no court records indicating if he went for treatment. While the drug charges were dropped, he still faced three other charges from 2021, including fleeing to elude arrest, but Hughes was never convicted. Court records show he failed to appear in court at least twice and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
This comes after our team found Hughes had a run-in with Alamance County deputies in 2012. Deputies arrested Hughes back then after a high-speed chase. Hughes led them on a chase at speeds over 100 mph after turning around to avoid a checkpoint. For that: he was sentenced to two years and two months.
Digging deeper into the issue, Ben Briscoe talked with US Senator Ted Budd about what can be done to stop repeat offenders.
“If you enforce the laws on the books, you don't need to go after the device,” Budd said. “You have to go after people that are criminals and you have to, if they need to be in jail, then they need to stay in jail. A lot of this no bail policy and these leftist policies which release people earlier than they should be, it's very harmful and it puts criminals back on the streets, that's what we need to go after. We have a people problem, not a device problem in this country. So we need to focus on what's even more of a difficult challenge. I think it's disingenuous to go after a device when we have the Second Amendment, but we really need to focus on dangerous people. And whether it's a firearm or if it's something else, we need to keep them in jail if they need to be in jail.”
Briscoe asked Budd, “What can you do on Capitol Hill to try to make sure these laws are enforced that already exist?”
“Make sure that we're supporting our law enforcement, make sure they have the funding that they need. A lot of which just comes from the counties. It comes from property taxes. It comes from North Carolina. But for the part that we play here, we want to make sure that they know that we have their full support,” Budd said.
We're still working to find out more about this suspect's history. We'll keep you updated.