The man charged with killing Roanoke Rapids businessman Shelby Salmon was a validated gang member while in prison, state Department of Correction records and law enforcement officials confirmed.
Gene Arnold “Root Root” Hawkins was a member of the Folk Nation, the records show.
The Folk Nation includes sets such as the Black Gangster Disciples and the Latin Disciples. Some of the symbols they use include six pointed stars and pitchforks.
Roanoke Rapids Deputy Police Chief Adam Bondarek said today officers were aware Hawkins was a gang member.
It is unlikely, however, Salmon’s murder resulted from gang activity. “Based on our investigation and looking at the physical evidence and witness statements, there was no indication that homicide was gang related,” Bondarek said.
Salmon was murdered in February of 2006 and Hawkins was charged last October.
Investigators began to target Hawkins early but have declined to elaborate on what evidence allegedly linked the man to the crime.
Salmon’s last day began when he left home around 7 a.m. and stopped at what was the Trade Mart where he drank coffee and greeted customers.
Around 10 a.m. he arrived at his business at 1135 Roanoke Avenue and shortly after spoke with his wife who called on her cell phone to tell him she was at Wal-Mart and ask if he needed anything.
Salmon liked to make coffee and tea and told his wife he needed cups. He also told her he was going to get a haircut and discussed going to the Duke basketball game that Friday.
He got up to see what size cups he needed and continued a casual conversation with his wife.
Salmon usually came home for lunch between noon and 12:30 p.m. and would call to let his wife know if he wasn’t coming.
Around 12:30 p.m. he didn’t show up. His wife called another business in the block to request they look to see if his vehicle was there, which it was.
She left home and went to the business and at approximately 1:06 p.m. discovered her husband’s body on the floor.
Salmon died from a close range gunshot wound to the head and was most likely killed between 10:10 a.m. and 1:06 p.m.
Hawkins is currently in jail awaiting trial but further pretrial motions and arguments concerning the Racial Justice Act will not be made until a Michigan State University study on the death penalty is completed.
According to an affidavit of one of the study’s authors — Catherine M. Grosso, an assistant professor of law at the university — she and Barbara O’Brien, also a Michigan State assistant law professor, began a statewide study in North Carolina to determine whether race has played a significant role in seeking or imposing the death penalty.
The study, which began August 11, 2009, will examine race and the death penalty from 1990. “The study will review the cases of every defendant who has been sentenced to death since 1990, every defendant who received a sentence of life imprisonment following a capital trial since 1990 and a random sample of other cases since 1990 in which defendants were prosecuted for potentially capital offenses, but whose cases were resolved prior to the commencement of a capital trial or with a noncapital trial,” the October affidavit reads.
It was scheduled to completed last month. rrspin.com could not immediately confirm today whether it has been completed.
