SUSPECT, OFFICER WOUNDED DURING DRUG RAID

WINNABOW (AP) -- A narcotics agent and one suspect suffered
life-threatening wounds after a shootout erupted inside a rural Brunswick
County home that was the site of a drug raid.

Stephen Lanier, a deputy sheriff, was shot in the neck during the shootout
late Friday, but fellow officers were able to move him out of danger while
two suspects inside the home "were continuously firing in an attempt to
kill the deputies," Sheriff Ronald Hewett said Saturday.

Lanier was in serious condition Saturday at New Hanover Regional Medical
Center in Wilmington.

Paul Emanuel Pelham, 24, was listed in critical condition at the hospital.
Another suspect, Atari Lavar Thomas, 22, was treated and released from
Brunswick County Hospital. Both men lived at the Winnabow home raided about
10 p.m. Friday, authorities said.

Thomas was charged with attempted murder, assault on a law enforcement
officer inflicting serious injury and resisting arrest, the sheriff's
department said. He was being held without bond pending a hearing.

Hewett said the home was the target of a search and seizure warrant after
an investigation that included "several undercover crack cocaine sales."

"The suspects were known to be armed and a danger to the community and
officers executing the search warrant," Hewett said, so the department's
Emergency Response Team was sent to carry out the raid.

Team members arrived at the home and identified themselves as officers
executing a search warrant when "the suspects went for their guns," Hewett
said.

The deputies returned fire.