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6:32 p.m. • 6-18-13

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Published: 2013-02-20 08:48:00
Updated: 2013-02-24 18:07:31

911 calls detail moments after trooper's shooting


Trooper Michael L. Potts
Trooper Michael L. Potts
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Authorities released two 911 calls Wednesday in the shooting of a North Carolina State Highway Patrol trooper who was injured in the line of duty Monday evening.

Passing motorists made the calls shortly after Trooper Michael L. Potts was shot during a traffic stop around 6:15 p.m. on U.S. Highway 70 near Cheek Road in Durham during a traffic stop.

"(The trooper) went up to the window," one caller said. "The officer took a glance at the road and turned his head back, and there were a few shots fired. The officer hit the ground."

A black Nissan Maxima then sped off, leaving the trooper behind.

"I just saw a car, and the car's not there anymore," another caller said.

Authorities say Mikel Edward Brady, 23, of 800 White Pine Drive, shot Potts from the driver's seat at an "extraordinarily close" range in both of Potts' hands, his right shoulder and the right side of his face.

Potts, who joined the Highway Patrol in 2001, was listed in fair condition Wednesday at Duke University Hospital. He has been alert and conscious, even making jokes, friends have said.

"It was pretty miraculous that he survived," Kieran Shanahan, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference Tuesday. "He made it back to his cruiser and really maintained his professionalism and was able to give a description."

Brady, who is from Raldolph, Vt., was captured Tuesday morning at an apartment complex in Raleigh and was arrested on one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

He was in the Durham County jail Wednesday under an $8 million bond as well as a $2.5 million bond on a felony absconder charge in Vermont.

Brady said nothing during his first court appearance, where he was appointed a public defender.

It's unclear what brought him to North Carolina. Court documents indicate that he does construction work and makes about $1,000 per month.

A pregnant woman at his apartment Wednesday did not want to talk about the charges he faces.

According to court records, Brady was released from a Vermont state prison in June after serving 33 months on numerous charges, including those stemming from a violent home invasion as well as four burglaries.

He had been wanted on a probation violation since October, when he was accused of deer poaching.

 


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""He made it back to his cruiser and really maintained his professionalism and was able to give a description." said Kieran Shanahan.

Too bad Kieran could not maintain his professionalism when he assaulted an 11 year old and 13 year old kid . . . so McCrory puts him in charge of public safety. You just can't make this stuff up.

1983 - I have been in law enforcement for 19 years. The absolute last thing I want occupying my hands when I approach a vehicloe on a traffic stop is a clipboard. I want my hands free to access weapons or communications systems or to lend a helping hand if the driver is in distress. The ticket book does none of that, regardless of the $40 gadget of bullet proof glass. I am not looking it up, because it is rediculous.

Still waiting foe the news investigation as to why Vermont let him out of prison after such a brief sentence given the crimes he had been convicted of.

Is that the liberals in the press are giving cover to the liberals in the so-progressive Vermont?

So now the taxpayers of NC have to pay for him,mother girlfriend and the baby on the way.

"Yeah and the world will be a safer place...NOT...There are many more like him then there are like you.People one person does not make a change,unless they are very high up on the ladder." - Ihavenoclu

Yeah! Lets stop going after criminals... doesn't make the world any safer! Lets not stop anyone from doing whatever they want! Why stop someone from being a menace to society?! (someone needs to invent a sarcasm font)

Hopefully he will get a life sentence and the public will not have to be harmed by this person again

Yeah and the world will be a safer place...NOT...There are many more like him then there are like you.People one person does not make a change,unless they are very high up on the ladder.

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