DRUG SUSPECT RAN OVER LIEUTENANT BEFORE BEING SHOT, AUTHORITIES REPORT

Police officer killed in Clayton

CLAYTON -- A suspected drug dealer backed his car over a Clayton police
officer Friday morning, fatally wounding her as he dragged her 40 feet,
before being shot to death by other officers, authorities said.

Lt. Monica Carey, commander of the investigative division, died after a
drug raid outside a Bojangles restaurant at U.S. 70 and Shotwell Road,
police said.

The State Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the investigation,
identified the driver as Omar Garcia Fernandez, 27. The agency did not
release a hometown for Fernandez, SBI spokesman John Bason said. Clayton
police said Fernandez had $1,000 worth of heroin in a white Ford Taurus
station wagon.

Carey, who came to Clayton 2 1/2 years ago, is the first woman in the
Clayton Police Department to die in the line of duty and its first officer
killed in 19 years. Carey, who records show is 36, was taken to WakeMed,
where she died Friday afternoon.

The incident played out at 10:10 a.m. as customers in the glass-walled
Bojangles ate their breakfasts.

Officers from the Clayton and Morehead City police departments and the Wake
County Sheriff's Office converged at the fast-food restaurant after a tip
from Morehead City police that a drug deal would take place there. Clayton
Police Chief Gary Ragland said he pulled his car in front of Fernandez's
station wagon only to see him shift into reverse and run over Carey,
dragging her under his car. Officers tried to stop the car and fired at
Fernandez, killing him.

"The suspect would not stop the vehicle," Ragland said. "He still had the
officer under his car. That's a deadly weapon. That's an authorized shooting."

In the aftermath, the car rested on a grassy median between the restaurant
and the highway, its doors open, its windows shot out, a child-safety seat
buckled in the back. Five bullet holes punctured the driver's side door,
front fender and windshield. Fernandez was the only person in the car,
police said.

Darrell Sauls, 49, of Clayton was waiting in the restaurant's drive-through
lane and watched the incident unfold. He said he saw two police officers
running across the parking lot, shooting as they went. Sauls said he heard
six to 10 shots.

Bason said he had no further information about the suspect and did not know
details of the drug bust. "There is very little I can say at this point,"
he said.

SBI special agent Greg Tart was one of the first officers to respond after
Carey, Clayton's only female lieutenant, was struck. He said Carey was a
fairly new detective when she arrived in Clayton from Carolina Beach, where
she spent seven years and began her career as a police officer. The two had
worked together closely in the past and Tart was impressed with Carey's
zeal for her job.

At one point, Tart said they were developing a lead in a murder case. "She
was ready to go bust in his door and go talk to the suspect and I had to
say let's get our ducks in a row first," he said. "She was always gung-ho,
ready to go, and sometimes I'd have to grab her by the reins and say 'hold
on.' "

Bill Newsome, a Clayton narcotics agent, called her the best supervisor
he'd had in 34 years on the job.

"She bent over backwards to help us," he said. "If we had a problem, she
wanted to solve it."

Carey's husband, a detective in the Wilmington police department, did not
want to talk about his wife Friday. They have two children, a boy and a girl.

Maj. W.M. Still, assistant chief at Carolina Beach Police Department, said
Carey, his former boss, was fearless. "She was not afraid to go out there
and do the job and stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the guys,"
he said.

In Clayton, Carey implemented a narcotics abatement program,
community-oriented policing and improved detective training, Ragland said.

Clayton police officers participated in a counseling session Friday.

"This is a bad time for the country and for the town of Clayton and the
Clayton Police Department," Ragland said. "As you remember the people who
died in New York and in Washington, D.C., I hope you remember Monica Carey."

A fund for Carey's children has been set up by the local Chamber of
Commerce. Donations may be sent to Bank of America, 11601 U.S. Highway 70
West, Clayton, N.C., 27520.

News researcher Toby Lyles contributed to this report.