Latest / WRAL Daily Download / Wake County Deputy Down
Transcript
- [00:00:00] Debra Morgan: From the WRAL news studios in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is the WRAL Daily Download an in depth conversation on a story worth talking about. [00:00:15] Amanda Lamb: Welcome to the WRAL daily download I'm Amanda Lamb in today's deep dive conversation. We are talking to WRAL reporter Chelsea Donovan about the recent killing of a wake county, deputy in the line of duty. The search for his killers, the investigation, and of course the status of the case now. [00:00:34] Welcome Chelsea. Thanks for being here. First of all, can you recap for us what happened on August 11th on battle bridge road? I know deputy Ned bird was a canine officer. He was shot and killed. And tell us about this area and who found him? [00:00:49] Chelsea Donovan: It's a very rural area and it's sort of flanked by a golf course. [00:00:53] There's not many homes. We know that he was clearing a domestic incident. His canine Sasha was still inside the car. And he was found by another deputy. They couldn't reach him on the radio and that's when they found him shot several times outside of his. Outside of his car. [00:01:10] Amanda Lamb: And tell me how you first got on the story. [00:01:13] I mean, I know the call came out and obviously we probably learned about it several hours later. So when did you first get on the story? [00:01:19] Chelsea Donovan: I was actually on vacation when that happened and I returned to work on Monday and was put on the story. That's when we started reaching out to friends and family to learn more about deputy Ned bird law enforcement, as you would imagine at this time early on in the investigation was pretty tight lipped. [00:01:35] The sheriff wasn't saying much. That was actually a roadblock for us. But we knew it was in the early stages. So we were just trying to learn all we could as quickly as we could. [00:01:45] Amanda Lamb: Yeah. And for people who don't know, I mean, there are a lot of obstacles in covering a story like this, because again, you've got law enforcement, this is a colleague, a friend they're grieving. [00:01:57] and they may wanna keep things close to the vest tighter than in another type of investigation, maybe where they weren't personally involved. [00:02:04] Chelsea Donovan: Correct. Right. When you're investigating one of your own, like you said everybody's really tight lipped and they're just going as fast as they can on the investigation. [00:02:13] So it's, it's pretty hard to get any new information. But we started to get new information sort. In the coming days. Yeah. [00:02:20] Amanda Lamb: So how did you do that? I mean, how do you go about that as a reporter and a journalist, trying to get information in a really tough [00:02:26] Chelsea Donovan: case like this? Well, the, the, the crux of, of what we learned happened Tuesday, and that happened pretty fast. [00:02:32] We were actually camped out at the detention center, just. Basically waiting to see if anybody was coming in the system who was murdered who was charged with murdered murder around three o'clock that day, we got word from a stringer that was listening to the scanners there, that the highway patrol was following two vehicles. [00:02:49] And that scanner traffic revealed that they were working to stop these two vehicles that had to do. The wake deputy murder. This was in Burke county, which is about 150 miles away from Raleigh. Tip started pouring into our newsroom that the FBI was asking Burke county authorities to stop two cars on 40. [00:03:06] We got word from a station in Charlotte, Ws C that they heard about it. They got a crew there. They got video of these two men that were detained by federal marshals. They gave us some video. We had to be pretty careful with this because the wake county Sheriff's office, wasn't saying much, so they weren't giving us a lot to go on, but through a lot of conversations With some managers, we felt like we had enough sources to go on. [00:03:31] We knew that these two men were detained. They were on federal detainers, but the Sheriff's office was very adamant emphatic in saying that it wasn't in relation to the, to the bird homicide. But our sources were saying that we just needed to keep an eye on these two men. And, and [00:03:46] Amanda Lamb: that's really hard because it's. [00:03:48] Just you, but you've got a whole bunch of people in the newsroom who are trying to vet this information. Correct. And correct. Correct. It's kind of as a journalist, you are out there. It's your face, it's your name in front of this story, but you have to take into consideration all the information that's coming from the [00:04:04] Chelsea Donovan: newsroom. [00:04:04] It definitely felt like it was very dicey and we were putting ourselves out there on a limb, but we really had so many sources coming in. And we felt at that point, that was enough to go on based on what we had and how we had another station out there. And we had stringers out there that were verifying this information. [00:04:22] Amanda Lamb: So tell me what happened. I guess these two men were taken into custody and one person was initially charged with murder, correct? [00:04:30] Chelsea Donovan: Correct. The two men were brought on. Into question on federal detainers that was on a Tuesday. So that was four days after his death. And we sat at the jail after that nothing happened. [00:04:42] We, we learned pretty quickly that the Sheriff's office was looking for a truck that had to do with Ned bird's murder. We saw that coming into the detention center, they were looking for a white truck. It was painted red. So here we are getting. A few more nuggets of information that helped with that. [00:04:58] You mentioned that there was a charge with murder that was a 29 year old Arturo Marine Satello. They were holding him in Aliance county. And then they quickly transferred him to wake county. He was charged with murder. We knew that there was another man involved and we heard through various sources that they were brothers. [00:05:16] We had found some some federal documents that we learned that they were both in the country, undocumented. And we found through some research that. There was another brother. His name was Alder. He was the younger brother and he was held on a detainer in Forsyth county in Winston Salem, but he actually wasn't arrested until a week later because they had to work out the legalities with ice and the federal detainer to have him extradited back to wake county. [00:05:43] So a [00:05:43] Amanda Lamb: lot of moving parts here, lot of moving parts to say, and then there was this kind of sidebar story going on. You know, we understand that deputy by lived in a home with at least one or two other people, and the person who owned the home was charged with taking some of his personal property. And so that was kind of this sidebar red herring, if you will in the whole [00:06:05] Chelsea Donovan: story. [00:06:06] That was on Wednesday when we were waiting for those arrests to go to come down. And we got a tip that birds home in the five points area had been broken into three days after his death. So we got the incident report and we found that his Toyota truck and his camper were allegedly stolen. One of his roommates had reported it. [00:06:26] It was a little bit fishy. So we got in touch with the landlord. He told me that it was a misunderstanding that he had moved those items out of the driveway so that the family could come in and park their vehicles as they got ready for the funeral services. And that he had given the keys to the family to have those items. [00:06:44] The Sheriff's office at that time was pretty upset that we had found out about that. And. The landlord at that time was very emphatic. He had nothing to do with it, but then a week later we found that the landlord who also claimed that he lived there with Ned was actually charged with stealing five of Ned bird's guns, ammunition, as well as mountain bikes. [00:07:08] And so that was just a whole nother element to this. That just was like, it was wow. It was kind of stunning to know that this happened in. In all in regards to the murder investigation, it was just a lot of moving parts. Right. [00:07:20] Amanda Lamb: And I have a little bit of information about that side of the story, and it seems like that's gonna have to play out, but there still may be some miscommunication misunderstanding there from what I understand. [00:07:30] So a lot, again, a lot of moving parts to a story like this. Thanks, Chelsea. We're gonna be back after a break with more, and we're gonna talk about, you know, what this was like for family, friends and the community to lay an officer to rest. [00:07:47] Welcome back to the WRAL daily download. We are talking to WRAL reporter Chelsea Donovan about the tragic shooting death of wake county, deputy Ned bird, while on duty. So we're gonna look at how this has impacted the community, I believe. And, and tell me if I'm not correct. I covered a shooting. Of a wake county, deputy in 2004, it was deputy Mark Tucker. [00:08:12] I believe that was the last deputy for wake county killed in the line of duty. And it was very similar. I mean, it happened in a field in Holly Springs. I think he was home for lunch and he stopped to check on something that looked unusual. This young man was target shooting. And I just remember how devastated everyone was. [00:08:32] Even people who didn't know him. I mean, is that what you're getting from this situation? [00:08:36] Chelsea Donovan: It definitely felt like that. And this, we have to remember came at a time when there were seven law enforcement officers shot in a period of two weeks, two of them killed. So it. It was just unbelievable, the amount of violence that was going on towards these law enforcement officers that were simply just doing their jobs and, and shot in the line of duty. [00:08:56] Amanda Lamb: So tell me about Ned bird. I mean, obviously you've learned some things about him from family and friends, and we know he was a canine officer, so he obviously loved loved animals and he was also a pretty well known local athlete. He'd won some awards. Tell me about that [00:09:12] Chelsea Donovan: as well. Yeah, he was 48. He was from New York. [00:09:14] We learned very quickly. He was strong. Physically and mentally big jujitsu guy, big CrossFit guy, a lot of friends and family would say repeatedly. The big, old biggest muscle that Ned had was his heart. So we learned that he was, you know, very kind and compassionate, gonna drop everything for you and help that kind of guy. [00:09:32] He started working in the detention center back in 2009 as a detention officer. He was transferring inmates and then he became a deputy in 2018. So just a, a few years ago. He was an animal lover and, and he recently had applied to be a canine officer and, and he got that role. [00:09:51] Amanda Lamb: And, you know, were you at the funeral or did you see the coverage of the funeral? [00:09:55] I did. I did. Yeah. And, and it looked just like any funeral for an officer who's died in the line of duty, just very, very emotion. You know, what's the reaction been like from the very beginning? I mean, the, the sheriff was upset at the first press conference. What's the reaction that you've been seeing consistently from the [00:10:16] Chelsea Donovan: community? [00:10:16] I think in the initial press conference, it seemed to me that sheriff baker was just experiencing utter shock. I mean, he, he held a press conference at five o'clock in the morning after that, that, that Friday morning after Deputy bird was killed. And I think he said maybe like 10 words total basically anything, basically he was gonna do anything, his power to bring justice to bird's killer. [00:10:40] But I think that the community just stood in shock. It's not often that you see in law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty. I think the climate that we're in too police often get a bad rap. And so it was wonderful in the coverage of the funeral to see strangers. That didn't even know this man come out, even with their children, just to sh as a show of force. [00:11:04] And just to show that everybody sort of was rallying around the law enforcement community in these dark times. [00:11:11] Amanda Lamb: Did you get a chance to speak to any family members? I know we did as a station. [00:11:15] Chelsea Donovan: Yes. So I spoke several times to Walter penny. That's Ned's uncle and his sister. We actually ended up breaking the news to them about bird's arrest. [00:11:25] They. Heard much of anything from the Sheriff's office. They had somewhat of a strained relationship with the Sheriff's office as the invest. So about the arrest in the case? Yeah. Yeah. When, when the, when the the arrest came down, that Tuesday, we called them for reaction. And I thought to myself, you know, we may be telling them for the first time that there were arrests in this case. [00:11:46] And, and that was the case. A as, after they were arrested, these two family members that were very close to Ned, of course, they had no mercy on these guys. They very much were expressing anger and they didn't MI mince words about it. They just felt that it was senseless. They were so grief stricken about Ned being taken in the line of duty. [00:12:05] And of course they were all for the, the utmost punishment, which could be the death penalty. If the da does seek that. [00:12:13] Amanda Lamb: How do you think this is going to impact the community, you know, going forward? Again, it's such a rare thing. If you look back 2004 to, you know, 20, 22, I mean, do you think it's going to make people more on edge, more aware that this can happen? [00:12:30] It's [00:12:30] Chelsea Donovan: hard to know because it is happening more often in terms of violence against police. But I think what I saw was, was it was just unreal to see those community members on the side of the street during the funeral weeping. With in regards to a man that they, that they didn't even know just that he, you know, served the citizens, he was taken in the line of duty. [00:12:51] So it was, I think, you know, people don't understand what they do every day. They kiss their wife and their kids goodbye, and you never know what's gonna happen to them. So. True. [00:13:00] Amanda Lamb: Absolutely. And so this is very early in the criminal justice system, right? I mean, they've just had their first appearances and I guess the next process will be you know, many, many court appearances leading up to a potential [00:13:13] Chelsea Donovan: trial. [00:13:13] Correct? They both had their first court appearance. They're sitting in jail under no bond. The district attorney Lauren Freeman, she's gonna make a decision within the next three months on whether or not to seek the death penalty. They've already. Been indicted by a grand jury. So the next steps could be an arraignment. [00:13:29] They could choose to waive that. And then obviously, like you said, future trial, future court dates, and then obviously leading up to a, a trial or, or, or a plea and [00:13:38] Amanda Lamb: any information about motive here. I mean, is that still just. Just something that's not been talked about. I [00:13:45] Chelsea Donovan: have not heard anything. There's been some rumblings that these men could have been involved in a drug deal. [00:13:52] We don't know their past history. I think that's the million dollar question as to how did he happen upon this? Like everybody else we wanna know that answer to. Gotcha. [00:14:01] Amanda Lamb: Absolutely. And finally, anything else that you wanna add about. How challenging and, and really kind of emotionally draining, covering a case like [00:14:11] Chelsea Donovan: this is, yeah, certainly a story that you take home with you. [00:14:15] I think when law enforcement investigates their own, you said it at the beginning of this conversation, they keep everything close to the vest. So it's very hard to get information it's not like just a, a regular murder case where you can get a press release and. Sort of a narrative to go by, or you can go to the courthouse and get a search warrant and sort of see the narrative and, and see a lot of information. [00:14:37] This is one of those things where you really have to dig when you get home at night and try to find everything you can about not only the victim, but those that are arrested because the Sheriff's office. Investigating their own. They're just gonna remain tight lip. So that's a little bit difficult. [00:14:53] Amanda Lamb: Absolutely. WRAL reporter Chelsea Donovan. Thank you so much for sharing your experience on this story with us and your insight. And thank you. The listener for listening to the WRAL Daily Download, make it a great day.