Rockingham County, NC– A mandetectives in Wake County have charged in connection with five unsolved murders may have ties to a Rockingham County crime.
The Rockingham County Sheriff's Office took out arrest warrants, charging Samuel James Cooper with two counts of attempted first degree murder.
The charges stem from a shooting on Nov. 4 on Flat Rock Road in Reidsville. Investigators say Cooper shot Demetrio Gomez and Ramon Gonezales in the head.
The neighbor who called 911 that night says the people living next door moved there two weeks before the shooting, and move out the day after the shooting.
"My wife get up and we started to go to the door, and she said, 'Wait a minute, you don't know who's out there.' But we opened the door, and there's this guy from next door laying on the steps and you can see blood running down the side of his face and on his shoulders," neighbor Millard Chavis told WFMY News 2's Erich Spivey.
Cooper, 30, made no comment as he appeared before a Wake County magistrateTuesday morning. He has acourt appearance scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and remains in the Wake County Jail without bond.
Sheriff investigatorsin Rockingham County sayCooper may have been involved in two shooting incidentsin the last six weeks.
Capt. Perry Brookshire told WRAL-TV one of those shootings happened during a home invasion in Wentworth in early October during which someone shot and injured two people and stole a vehicle. The second case happened about three weeks later on Flat Rock Road when the suspect shot two people in the face. One of those victims suffered critical injuries.
Raleigh police arrested CooperNov. 21 after he allegedly robbed Bank of America in Garner. Heled police on a brief chaseand raninside a Domino's Pizza distribution center. He stayed inside for nearly an hour before he was arrested and charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony speeding to elude arrest.
In the days that followed the arrest, Raleigh police and Wake County detectives say they developed leads connecting Cooper to five unsolved murders.
On May 12, 2006, Ossama "Sam" Haj-Hussein, 43, was shot and killed inside the In amp; Out Food Mart on Creech Road in Raleigh.
Less than a month later, on June 3, 2006, LeRoy Jernigan, 41, was found dead inside Circus Restaurant on Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. Jernigan worked there as a cleaning contractor.
Timothy David Barnwell, 34, died at WakeMed on April 27, 2007after police found him shot outside his second-story apartment at Windsor Falls Apartments in north Raleigh.
Last month, a homeless man, Ricky High, 48, was shot and killed near St. Augustine's College.
Two days later, on Oct. 14, Tariq Hussain, 52, was found dead inside Bobby's Grocery on Garner Road.
"These murders violently took victims from their families and friends," Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison and Maj. Ken Mathias, of the Raleigh Police Department, said in a joint news release issued Tuesday. "The fact that they occurred is as deeply saddening as it is irrevocable, but we are grateful for the relentless, cooperative work of many people that brought this suspect to justice."
Harrison and Mathiassay they do not anticipate making further comments about the case because of "the magnitude and complexity of the cases and because of the ongoing investigation of each of them."
According to court records, Cooper has a criminal record dating back to 1993 in Wake County that includes 10 arrests, 19 charges, including assault on a police officer, escape from prison, robbery, assault on a female, drug charges and larceny.
Cooper was one of three inmates who, in June 1999, overpowered a guard and escaped from custody while on a Wake County inmate work crew. Police caught him a short time later.
At that time, he was serving a 20-year sentence for armed robbery, assault and drug charges.
