Trayvon Purnell, who has a pending court date on January 23 for a charge of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, was charged Wednesday after task force agents seized a .40-caliber Ruger, a red bandanna, crack cocaine and a digital scale, Captain A.M.Harris said in a statement.
Red is commonly associated with the Bloods but whether Purnell actually has ties to the gang is something which remains under investigation, said sheriff’s office Detective D.C. Dickens, who is also the office’s gang task force agent. “We’re getting complaints of Blood and Crip activity in the Roanoke Rapids area,” he said today.
Dickens said those complaints include drug activity and violence.
Harris said in the statement Dickens and task force agent J.R. Matthews were in the area outside Roanoke Rapids commonly referred to as Lincoln Heights around 4 p.m. following up on gang and drug activity when they spotted Purnell, who had been the target of complaints he was driving his vehicle with a gun and drugs inside.
Matthews and Dickens located Purnell driving in the Branch Avenue area and attempted to conduct an investigative stop, Harris said in the statement. Purnell failed to stop and abandoned the vehicle, fleeing into a backyard on Dickens Avenue. He was caught behind a residence on Davie Smith Street after a short chase.
Dickens arrested and charged Purnell, 26, of Dickens Avenue, for felony possession of cocaine, possession with the intent to sell and deliver cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting a public officer and carrying a concealed weapon.
He received a $30,000 bond and January 18 court date.
Task force agents, Halifax County Sheriff’s Office Corporal P. Moyer and his dog Bosco and investigators of the Roanoke Rapids Police Department responded to assist.
Purnell is awaiting a court date in a shooting which occurred last October 17 on Carver Street.
The victim received two non-life threatening injuries to the leg and was treated and later released from a medical facility.
The sheriff’s office said at the time the shooting was the result of an argument.
Purnell was also one of four people charged in the 2008 murder of Jerry Yellorday but when a superior court judge found no probable cause proceedings in the case halted.
The judge, who was from Orange County, did not find one of the witnesses believable.
Yellorday, 29, was shot as he sat in his vehicle outside his residence.