US marshals surround Durham home looking for fugitive who hadn't lived there in years

Authorities told Cleo Bell and her husband the marshals were looking for a murder suspect, but Bell said Tuesday that her family has lived in the home for more than three years.

"It’s very scary because we have a 2-year-old daughter. Had we been home, the situation could have been very different," Bell said, noting that she left the house with her daughter about a half hour before the marshals arrived at 7:50 a.m.

Video from the doorbell camera shows a quick glimpse of the marshals coming onto the front porch before one of them covers the camera. They then knocked twice, identifying themselves as law enforcement on the second try.

The marshals can be seen in video from another security camera walking around the house and peering into windows. One of them had an assault-style rifle at the ready.

"You can see in that window right there, it's dark – no TV, no lights," one of the marshals tells others.

Bell said her husband saw the videos later that day while at work and notified her.

"We were scared to come home. We didn’t know, would they still be there?" she said. "We didn’t know what was going on. We knew we hadn’t done anything."

The couple called the Durham County Sheriff's Office and the Durham Police Department to find out what was going on and eventually learned about the search for the fugitive.

"We feel very violated. I feel like there should be more resources available for such a big organization where they could have done their research," Bell said.

The previous owner of the house rented it out, she said, but she and her husband bought it in 2018.

Brian Alfano, assistant chief inspector for the Marshals Service's Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force, told WRAL News on Wednesday that the task force received an anonymous tip on Monday that a woman who lived at the house was helping a man wanted in a Fayetteville murder hide out. The officers never went into the home and left once they couldn't contact anyone inside or any neighbors, he said.

"Task force members were carrying a ballistic shield and long guns due to the violent nature of the offense and the suspect’s extensive criminal history," Alfano said.

Bell said she's thankful no one was at home when the marshals arrived.

"Just with the history of events that have happened in America with the African American community, who knows what would have happened?" she said. "Who knows? I could have fit the description? Who knows what would have happened?"

She said she worries it could happen to other homeowners and hopes the agency is more careful in the future to ensure they don't knock on the wrong door while searching for a fugitive.

"I’m still on edge. I will probably be on edge for a couple of weeks, to be honest," she said.