Man hit with frozen turkey suspect in two carjackings

Fuquay-Varina, N.C. — Garner police say that a carjacking suspect whom bystanders hit with a frozen turkey in a grocery store parking lot Saturday was involved in a carjacking and robbery at the same intersection a day earlier.

Fred Louis Ervin, 30, is accused of stealing cash from a BP gas station at Ten-Ten Road and U.S. Highway 401 in Garner and then punching a woman and stealing her car from a nearby Harris Teeter Sunday morning.

"It's unusual to say the least," Fuquay-Varina Police Chief Larry Smith said. "I don't know in my 30-year career I've heard of someone getting in a fight with a frozen turkey involved."

Investigators say that Ervin struck at a McDonald's restaurant in the BP station the previous evening.

Jesus Quijada, 56, of Raleigh, told police that Ervin used a gun and stole his wallet and 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier around 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

Fuquay-Varina police recovered the car and wallet at Old McCullers Road and Gulley Lane, off U.S. 401, Sunday evening. The car had been damaged, according to the incident report.

Ervin was treated at WakeMed for a head wound. A bystander hit him in the head with a frozen turkey during the reported carjacking in the Harris Teeter parking lot, and he crashed the victim's car into five vehicles in the parking lot.

"People are trying to fight him, he's hurting people, he's hurting cars. There's kids around," a 911 caller said.

Smith credited the bystanders who fought with Ervin.

"We don't really encourage people to do (that) because of the dangers involved. But, obviously, some citizens decided they were going to take the chance to help their fellow citizen," the police chief said.

"And in this case, they slowed him down some, which gave us more time to get to area."

He was charged on Tuesday with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, robbery with a dangerou weapon, driving with a revoked license, hit-and-run and common law robbery. His bond was set at $502,500.

Ervin is on probation from an attempted common-law robbery in Mecklenburg County in 2004, according to state Department of Correction records. He has an extensive criminal record in that county, dating to 1995.

Ervin has been convicted twice of larceny of a motor vehicle and selling drugs and once of common-law robbery and hit-and-run. He has been sentenced to probation six times and imprisoned for violating probation five times, serving a total of about 34 months.

The Wake County Sheriff's Office and Garner and Fuquay-Varina police departments are investigating the crimes in which Ervin is accused. The BP is in Garner town limits, and the Harris Teeter is in Fuquay-Varina.