Suspect in Goldsboro toddler's slaying caught

Derrick Raymont Best, 29, had been on the run from a murder charge in the Feb. 27 shooting death of 3-year-old Princess Shelby King.

Goldsboro police said a tip from an "America's Most Wanted" viewer helped them track Best to Greenville, where he had been staying in an apartment rented to a cousin. Neighbors told WNCT that the apartment had been vacant for a while.

U.S. Marshals and Greenville police surrounded an apartment building in the 400 block of Paladin Drive, then used tear gas to flush Best out of the attic.

Best was transported to the Wayne County Jail, where he was held without bond.

Investigators say that Best fired a gun during an altercation, and a stray bullet struck Princess, who was on the playground at The Grand at Day Pointe apartment complex, near Day Circle and Slocumb Street. She later died at Wayne Memorial Hospital.

Best was also served with a warrant for failure to appear in court March 9. He awaits trial on attempted murder and other weapons charges in the September 2008 shooting of a woman in Goldsboro.

Additionally, he was served with outstanding warrants for charges of kidnapping, assault by strangulation, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, two counts of assault on a female, three counts of communicating threats, misdemeanor larceny, misdemeanor breaking and entering, injury to real property and harassing phone calls.

He was scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon.

Best has 20 convictions dating from 1998, including possession of a firearm by a felon, assault on a female, dealing drugs and simple assault, according to state Department of Correction records.