July 27--NEWPORT NEWS -- When several police officers showed up at an address at 48th Street and Marshall Avenue during a daylong police sweep for fugitives, a man opened the door of an apartment across the way.
Then he quickly shut it.
But not before Trevor Pearson, a Newport News Police detective, got a glimpse of the man's face. He was the man they were looking for at the address across the street in Newsome Park. "I just recognized him," Pearson said. "I dealt with him before."
Pearson and another detective knocked on the door, and were allowed entry by the man who lived there. They said they found the fugitive -- a man wanted for failing to appear in court on a misdemeanor possession of marijuana count -- hiding in the kitchen.
That man, Oziris Delonde, 18, was among dozens of people rounded up on Thursday during a two-day sweep involving about 120 officers from Newport News, the U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies. Police rounded up about 34 of them as of 2 p.m., with several more arrested as the evening wore on.
At every opportunity, police asked residents, onlookers, and even the arrested fugitives themselves if they had seen two other men: Tyrek Allen -- wanted in a Newport News homicide and shootings in Newport News and Hampton -- and Floyd Taybron, another man wanted in connection with a shooting in Hampton.
"He's a dangerous person, and we need him off the street," Police Chief James Fox said of Allen. "We need the public's help in getting him off the street before someone else gets hurt."
"That's our biggest priority right now," Police Detective Mike Scrimgour said of Allen. "He's our rock star."
During the sweep, Scrimgour showed Allen's picture to two women sitting on a stoop, asking them if they had seen him. He's been known to shoot at the slightest provocation, Scrimgour told them. "He shot an old lady and also killed another guy," he said. "Let us know if you see him."
Not only will that get him off the street, he told them, but they would be in for a $2,500 reward for information leading to his arrest. The women said they would be on the lookout for him.
During the sting, some people told officers they wanted the fugitives arrested, too. One woman said a man had stolen her daughter's laptop and iPod. Another woman said one fugitive had stolen from her family, and was HIV positive and having sex with "young girls" in the neighborhood.
"If y'all don't get him before we get him, y'all will be coming back picking his body off the street," the woman told officers.
"Don't talk like that," Pearson said as he walked back to the car.
There were some diversions during the sting. As Pearson was driving his unmarked police van, with Scrimgour his passenger, he noticed a black SUV driving without a third taillight on 16th Street, and began following the car, pulling it over on Chestnut Avenue.
Several detectives and other officers surrounded the vehicle, and began looking into the windows as they talked with the driver and a male passenger. Noticing lots of air fresheners, and the driver "acting nervous," they got the IDs of both men.
As they ran their names in a police check, they called a K-9 officer and had him do a sweep of the outside of the vehicle. The dog signaled that it had come upon the scent marijuana. Both men were taken out, cuffed and read their Miranda warnings as several officers searched the car.
Officers discovered what appeared to be marijuana -- about $50 worth -- in the driver's pocket, and said they found residue in the center console. It turned out that the driver was on probation following a five-year sentence on a robbery charge.
They gave the man, Dekota Williams, 26, a summons to appear in court on the possession count, confiscating his cell phone -- which featured a picture of a gun -- to use as part of the investigation.
Copyright 2012 - Daily Press, Newport News, Va.
