GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The Greensboro Police Department said late Tuesday that it handled extradition orders appropriately in arrest warrants for a man who left jail twice in New York City, despite being wanted in a Greensboro shooting.
That man, 27-year-old Lamont Pride, was charged in the slaying Monday of veteran New York City police Officer Peter Figoski.
The Greensboro Police Department is facing criticism for not requesting sooner that Pride be extradited to North Carolina if he were caught in another state.
Locally, Pride was wanted in the nonfatal shooting Aug. 5 of a man on Holden Road.
Pride left the city afterward and remained at large, while Greensboro police filed felony warrants against him with only in-state extradition orders, according to a statement Greensboro police released Tuesday night.
The orders signal to other law-enforcement agencies that a prisoner needs to be transferred elsewhere to face additional charges.
In Greensboro, Pride faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, possession of a firearm by a felon and felony conspiracy.
"I'm glad he's finally caught," RayShawn Maberson, the man Pride is accused of shooting in a Greensboro parking lot, told the Daily News of New York. "I wouldn't put nothing past this guy."
Greensboro police obtained warrants for his arrest Sept. 23 and Sept. 26 on three charges related to the August shooting, they said in the statement. Both warrants were for in-state extradition only. The Guilford County district attorney evaluates the circumstances of each case when determining what level of extradition is warranted, police said.
"In-state extradition is appropriate and reasonable when officials have no reason to believe that the suspect is a flight risk," according to the statement. "This was the case with Pride."
Police said the warrant information was entered into a national criminal database to alert law-enforcement officials across the country of Pride's wanted status. Greensboro officers continued to look for Pride, they said.
On Nov. 3, he was arrested in New York with three other people inside an apartment where police seized bags of crack cocaine and marijuana, the newspaper reported. An NYPD spokesman was quoted as saying the warrant for Pride's arrest specified "extradite within the State of North Carolina only."
Pride was later released on his own recognizance on the Nov. 3 charges. A New York City officer told Greensboro police about those charges Nov. 8, Greensboro police said in the statement.
"On Nov. 8 -- after apparently reconsidering -- North Carolina amended the warrant to allow for extradition from New York," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne was quoted as saying. "He was in the wind by then."
In the Tuesday statement, Greensboro police confirmed that they coordinated with the district attorney to amend the warrant to include full extradition from any state to N.C. that day. The change in status of extradition was entered in the national database that afternoon.
The New York Police Department and King County District Attorney's Office learned about the change over the phone, Greensboro police said in the statement.
Greensboro police said they were notified Nov. 9 that Pride was released from custody. Police then asked the U.S. Marshals Service's Violent Fugitive Task Force to help them locate Pride, they said.
The marshals had coordinated with New York City police to locate and extradite Pride before the fatal shooting.
As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Greensboro police said Pride was still in custody in New York.
Some New York media outlets criticized the Greensboro Police Department for not issuing national extradition orders until a month before Figoski was shot and killed early Monday morning.
The Daily News reported the NYPD contacted Greensboro police in September, after Pride was arrested in Brooklyn on misdemeanor charges of possessing a knife.
In an article published Tuesday, a Greensboro police spokeswoman said New York police contacted Greensboro police.
However, Greensboro police said these initial reports were inaccurate in the statement.
"Greensboro Police first learned that Pride was in New York upon his arrest in early November," the news release said.
Pride is accused of the murder of Figoski, a decorated police officer responding to a robbery call at a Brooklyn apartment.
A 47-year-old divorced father of four girls, Figoski could have retired two years ago. As a veteran officer, he also could have worked a day shift, but he wanted to spend that time with his children.
The Associated Press said police found a silver, semi-automatic pistol under a parked car near where Pride was arrested immediately after the shooting. One round had been fired; it was loaded with 10 more live rounds.
Three additional men were arrested Tuesday in connection with the shooting; another is being questioned.
Copyright 2011 - News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
