E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Pitt County Sheriff Dept.
(L-R) Antwan Andre Anthony, 29, and Xavier Montel Shamble, 19, and Willie Whitehead, 23.
Two suspects in a triple murder-robbery at a convenience store in rural North Carolina were released from prison — one after serving nine years — just a matter of weeks before they were arrested in connection with the April 1 slayings.
The crime took place as three employees at Hustle Mart in Farmville, N.C. — including the teenage son of the owner and his two cousins — were preparing to close for the night. Three armed men with their faces all or partly covered covered burst in the store to rob it. They also apparently shot the employees despite no obvious signs that the victims had tried to resist. A customer discovered the bodies shortly after the perpetrators left, around 10 p.m.
The three victims were Mokbel Mohamed Almujanhi, 16 – known at his high school as "Sam" — Nabil Nasser Saeed Al’mogannahi, 26, and Gaber Alawi, 24.
Surveillance video from the scene of the crime and tips from the public led police to arrest four suspects on April 4: Antwan Andre Anthony, 29; Xavier Montel Shamble, 19; Willie Whitehead, 23, and a fourth male whose name was not disclosed because he is a minor.
Each is charged with three counts of murder and a combination of other crimes including first-degree kidnapping, robbery, and possession of firearm by a felon.
One of those suspects, Antwan Anthony, had spent most of the past decade in Connecticut prisons before being released on Jan. 21, according to a report by the Hartford Courant, citing prison records. He was allowed to serve out a five-year parole in North Carolina where he has family, the report said.
Anthony was initially jailed in 2002 on second-degree assault charges, the paper reported. He had three subsequent convictions, while in prison, for assaulting prison guards — each time extending his sentence, the report said.
Anthony was "a very difficult inmate," according to a Connecticut correctional official quoted by Greenville area newspaper, the Daily Reflector. The official said that his behavior prompted more than 100 disciplinary reports while he was incarcerated in that state.
Corrections personnel told the Courant that Anthony committed a fourth assault, in Sept. 2010, that was not charged.
State police were called into investigate after Anthony allegedly head-butted an officer while being transported, and an arrest warrant was submitted to the state's attorney's office in Tolland, a spokesman for the union that represents Connecticut’s corrections officers told the Courant.
"We had no idea why he wasn't prosecuted and that didn't sit well with the men and women in the state prison system,'' Larry Dorman, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 4 which, represents prison guards, told the Courant.
Police hunt for suspects in triple murder-robbery in rural N. Carolina
Another of the four suspects, Xavier Montel Shamble, 19, had been out of a North Carolina prison for just three weeks when he allegedly took part in the crime that left three young men dead, records from the North Carolina Department of Corrections show.
The records also reveal a history of repeat convictions for the third suspect, Willie Whitehead, 23, who had served time for offenses including robbery with a dangerous weapon and larceny dating back to 2004. He was released after serving time for his last conviction -- for possession of a weapon by a felon -- last August.
The three adult suspects are being held in Pitt County Detention Center in North Carolina. Police did not release the whereabouts of the underage suspect.
In surveillance videos, the victims, whose family is originally from Yemen, did not appear to put up any kind of resistance to the robbers during the April 1 encounter, said Christy Wallace, public information director for the Pitts County sheriff’s office.
“There wasn’t anything they could have done differently,” she said.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Judge in Zimemrman case cites possible conflict of interest
- 2 charged with murder, hate crimes in Tulsa shooting spree
- UC San Diego to overhaul handling of racial harassment complaints
- Newark Mayor Corey Booker saves neighbor from fire
Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
Amazing-authorities can give the name of a minor victim but not of a minor involved in the committing of the crime?????? Not a hate or race crime? We have 4 B l a c k perps and 3 Yemeni victims. Where are Jackson, Sharpton, Obama, Farrrahakan?
Exactly.
Obama? Can't stand the FACT that the Presidnet of the UNited States of America is Black huh?
Throw them in isolation for a few months, see how they act around people then. Dirtbags like this shouldn't be blessed with the privilege of living.
Send them to Yemen for prosicution and sentencing.
Where is Al, Jesse, and the rest of the gang??? I suppose they have been too busy in Florida with the Trayvon Martin case to even hear about this, huh??
Why isn't NBC showing the pictures of the three young men murdered in this case the way they repeatedly published pictures of a twelve year old Mr. Martin?
Because the media hates white people.
I think that the Conn. parole board just wanted to get rid of that one guy. So when he said he could live in another ,Conn. said please go you will save us money here.
Where is the outrage on this one? Where are Jesse and Rev. Al? This murder is wrong also! These people shouldn't be dead either?
pattymax; Yes they should!
If Obama had sons, they'd look just like these guys.
If they were white they may look like your sons
But their black, so they look like Obama's sons.
Maybe then you will not refer to exslaves as aminals; they of of your own making!
This is the same pope who has said negative things about Jews and Moslems and has chastised us about Cuba and praised Castro behind closed doors. And the same pope who says nothing about the continued slavery going on in Africa, committed by blacks on other blacks.
Are you crazy??
What a crock of manure. When have any of the Black people living in the US today been slaves in the US? When were their parents slaves?
Women, Jews, Irish, Italians, Poles, Chinese, Japanese have all been treated as less than equals. There have been plenty of "No ---'s Allowed" signs, which referred to the aforementioned groups. There have been jobs and opportunities which were denied to people of those same groups. How many of them still blame their lot in life on the past? How many of them have figured out if you want to get ahead you have to make an effort and quit blaming everybody else for their failures.
Get your head out of your arse, pull up your pants, and take responsibility for yourself.
So what's the excuse for Africa in general. Looting, killing, raping and acting like a uncivilzed thug appears be genetic. Africa....the ghetto what the F's the difference?
Huh? What language are you speaking?
i like the idea of castration - less cost to us, no chance of reproducing the genes and virtual elimination of future hostility. Pity it doesn't raise the voice to female like tones though.
So if the victims tried to resist, would that have made it any better?
Wow-guess our racial and regional divide is greater than ever. How could that have happened in 3 short years? Is there not a root cause for our racial, religious, regional, political and economic divisions that are now present? Do we really have so many sheeples in this country who do not see the divide and conquer mindset of our current politicians???????
This is not do to a place in time. These are thoughts that have been imbeded through our parents. Hatred on any scale is just not where we should be. These so called Christians who claim to know Jesus would not even get in the door of heaven.
Hmm seem like good candidates for ORGAN donation, Toast them and Donate. Productive members of society will benefit and so will the taxpayers. , ,MY "TWO SENSE"
I guess 1 cent and 1 cent equals 2 Sense. In Omaha.
If you want an example of what five-hundreds years of slavery dose; visit the Zoo! I dare you say the animals created this problem; you put them in a CAGE prevented their fathers from owning anything in America. read the Black Codes of the United STATES OF AMERICA.
I do not think it will help to read anything for a peoples that are in denial. And refuse to except any responsibility for what they created. I have had this conversation with whites forover seventy years and they are unchanged. My mother ofter said convent a fool against his will he will have the same opinion still!
Which one of these are 500 years old? Quit playing the slave game. That's over with. You people continually try to make excuses for these kind and this is what it gets you, no regard for human life.
Interesting point of view John Julius. I do however have to ask exactly when I created slavery? I'm in my 30's and I'm pretty sure that slavery was over by the 1970s. I, personally, owe you nothing-not even an apology because I have not wronged you. I have not kept you from owning a blessed thing, I haven't kept you from school, I haven't kept you from working, I haven't stolen your money, I haven't done anything to hinder you in any way from being the best possible person you can be.
When you can show me YOUR scars from being beaten with the whip that I held in my hand than I'lltake you seriously but at this point you are just another whiner looking for someone else to blame for your own failures.
Watch out, Sharpton is going to lead a crusade to get these killers. OH wait, they are black. Never mind, it is ok.
He plays the race card when it is do, no doubt. But that is because the deck has been stacked for 400 years.
I am so sad I have to share America with people like you.
oncearepub
I am so sad I have to share America with people like you.
FEEL FREE TO LEAVE ANYTIME THEN!
Well I love America and Americans no matter how different we are. Just love it because there is no place else this could work.
You first, TonyinWyo.
Could also be nonsense.
they were not black per se. the victims were from Yemen. Yemen is in the Middle East. how the HELL did middle easterns end up in N.C.? they are everywhere. slowly taking over our country so they can bomb without resistance.
Could it be we brought them here in bonds?
They were people and they were murdered. Yes foreigners are taking over not just middle easterners, but asians and latinos as well, because that's the nature of America and because we have completely turned our back on God and we have asked him to get out of our schools, courts and country, so that's what happens when you invite God out of your life, He leaves.
I still trust Him, and pray to Him and believe in Him and His Word, but I am seeing things hit our country like they never have before, with such devastating results. For one reason or another Americans are becoming more and more Godless and the results are not hard to see, but they are real evident.
No oncearepub! Slaves were mainly kidnapped from the West Coast of Africa. Yemen is in East Africa. They are more than likely fleeing political persecution
We should all wave the rebel flag. The last one . You know the White one.
A "very difficult" inmate should have STAYED an inmate.
The parole board on this should be investigated and some firings should take place soon.
Good sense, or cents like Omaha.
This Anthony guy had no chance of a life outside of prison, no excuses for him but in his #@&$ed up mind, he had nothing to loose. Now we can all hope that they never taste life outside prison again.
Hatred inspires hatred. Should we just keep it going on and on and on?
You all started the hatred. But if it does not suit your needs you ignore the problem. Democrats that is hardly leading. White Hispanics NO SUCH Critter....
Who is "you all"?
Since they killed the three Yemeni guys and weren't provoked, I imagine Eric Holder will go after them with hate crime charges.... right?
You are trying to be funny right?
First of all it was a robbery.
Second of all, blacks don't get charged with hate crimes.
They most certainly do, when provable.
The only time I have heard a black person get charged with a hate crime is when a black attacked a transgender person for being trying to pick up on her boyfriend. The Holder pyramid appears to have homosexuals and transgender at the top, Blacks next, and the rest of us at the bottom. Can you say pandering to the liberal base?
I'm waiting for the outrage. The wanted dead or alive poster. Where is Sharpton. Why isn't the media convicting these folks in the press? Maybe they were "white Arabs"
You are barking up the wrong tree.
And you should know it.
Sharpton and the lot are on a one way street paved with asphalt.
These cretins deserve death; I only hope the state has the death penalty. If not, then perhaps their lives can be "taken" in prison. Add to that, the parole boards who released them--QUILTY OF ACCESSORY TO THE FACT. It is time that pieces of pond scum be treated like the atmosphere from which they sprang--void of air. What kind of DNA went into making these creatures? I am so tired of reading cases like this. Our society can not continue its downward slide back into the pond. May justice be served and punishment swift. With sympathy to all the families of the victims.
Everyone in this world has the same dreams and aspirations. Keep your children safe to grow up to live a full life. be fed ,live under a roof,for protection, And just get by day by day. Is that to much to ask?