Suspects in cop shooting were wanted in Pennsylvania

Chris Pawlowski, supervisor of the Delaware County, Pa. Probation Office, said Michael Eugene Edgerton, 38, had been out of jail on parole after serving nine months in prison for credit card fraud.

In August, he and his fiancée, Renee Michelle Phillips, both of Southampton, Pa., were charged in a motor vehicle theft.

Delaware County parole officials issued an arrest warrant on Aug. 18, charging Edgerton with violating his parole, Pawlowski said.

At the time, he was already in jail on the theft charge in Bucks County, Pa., He was released two days on Aug. 20

Pawlowski said he didn't know how Bucks County authorities made the decision to release Edgerton. A call to the Bucks County jail was not returned Friday.

Roanoke Rapids police say Edgerton shot John Taylor, a Roanoke Rapids police officer, three times during a traffic stop Wednesday afternoon along Interstate 95.

Taylor was in critical but stable condition Friday at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, police said.

Investigators have not given a motive for the shooting but said the 1997 Geo Prism he and Phillips were in had been reported stolen in Pennsylvania.

Edgerton and Phillips abandoned the car and fled the scene. They were found in some nearby woods Thursday. Edgerton was from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Phillips, 43, was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact of attempted murder, possession of a stolen firearm and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Phillips was in the Halifax County jail Friday afternoon under an $800,000 bond.

During Phillips’ first court appearance Friday afternoon, prosecutors said she had been arrested previously for stealing her mother’s car. That car, however, was not the one police recovered Wednesday.