By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost
Randy and Sherry Deadmon had a feeling the invasion and robbery at their home Monday night wasn’t going to be the last.
They were right.
“After Monday night, we were ready for anything,” Sherry Deadmon said Friday evening from her driveway after her husband and son, John-Ross, exchanged gunfire inside and outside their Corriher Grange Road residence with two men, seriously wounding one of the suspects.
The wounded man, 18-year-old Jonathan Esquire Williams of 1699 Mission Oaks St., Kannapolis, was shot at least twice by John-Ross Deadmon and airlifted by helicopter to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. He was listed in fair condition early this morning.
Emergency responders found Williams lying in the garage just outside the Deadmon residence at 220 Corriher Grange Road, several miles west of China Grove.
Meanwhile, John-Ross Deadmon was treated at Rowan Regional Medical Center for an injury to the side of his head. He was either grazed by a bullet or injured when one of the assailants hit him with the butt of a gun, his father said.
The injury was not serious. In fact, before he left for the hospital, John-Ross was describing for Rowan Sheriff’s Office investigators how he chased the other man, 18-year-old Timani D’Ante Starks of 2090 Brantley Creek Drive, Kannapolis, through back yards toward N.C. 152.
John-Ross and Starks were exchanging gunfire as they ran, reports said.
John-Ross Deadmon stopped his chase near N.C. 152, and Starks was believed to be picked up by a woman accomplice, Tiffany Suzanne Horne, 19, of 2105 Brantley Road, Kannapolis.
Kannapolis Police, aided by a N.C. Highway Patrol helicopter, located Horne in a 1991 white Honda on Brantley Road in Cabarrus County. Starks was captured in Kannapolis a short time later.
Bond was set for Starks at $1 million Friday night and $500,000 for Horne.
Arrest warrants also were drawn for Williams, who along with Starks faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Randy Deadmon was not hurt Friday, though he found himself in the middle of the gunfire inside the house, which was scarred with numerous bullet holes, Sherry Deadmon reported.
“They told my husband they had come back to kill him because we had reported” the earlier robbery, Sherry Deadmon said.
In that home invasion, two men and a woman had pushed down Randy Deadmon and told Sherry Deadmon they would “blow your head off” if she didn’t open the couple’s safe.
The robbers that night took more than $1,300 in cash, five pistols and a cell phone.
Authorities said Friday night that some of the suspects ó more arrests are pending ó conspired to invade the Deadmons’ home Thursday night but decided against it when they saw someone inside the house holding a gun.
Friday’s events started before 3:39 p.m. outside the Deadmons’ home on Corriher Grange Road. Williams and Starks reportedly confronted John-Ross in or near the garage and dragged him by the collar to the house, where his father had gone to rest because of an aching back.
“They said, ‘We’re after your dad,’ ” neighbor Billy Ledbetter said John-Ross told him later.
It’s not clear exactly what happened inside the house, except that a struggle ensued with shots being fired by all the participants.
“There were shots all the time,” Randy Deadmon said.
John-Ross was able to retrieve a shotgun close to the door, which had been loaded and ready since the home invasion Monday.
A Sheriff’s Office report said when deputies arrived they found a wounded black male (Williams) in Deadmon’s garage. He was wearing a black “costume” and a camouflage bullet-proof vest, the report said.
A black mask also was lying near a couch in the garage, and a pistol was on the couch, reports added.
With the wounded Williams in the garage, John-Ross set off chasing Starks, who was wearing black clothing and a red bandanna.
Ledbetter heard the shots from his house two doors away, then saw John-Ross and Starks running through his back yard.
“I thought it was a Halloween prank,” Ledbetter said. But he soon called 911 for help when he realized things were for real.
“The guy stopped, turned around and shot at John-Ross,” Ledbetter said.
John-Ross will be 21 next week, and he lives with his parents.
“He was very upset,” Ledbetter said of John-Ross when he spoke with him soon after the incident.
Detective Chad Moose of the Rowan Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the home invasion and Friday’s shooting were connected, though Williams is not being charged in connection with Monday’s home invasion.
Moose also confirmed that shots had been exchanged starting at the house and going all the way to N.C. 152, which is the length of several football fields away.
“This time they were ready for them,” Moose said.
Billy Fowler, another neighbor, spoke briefly with Randy Deadmon and heard pretty much the same account of how things happened.
“They are good people,” Fowler said of the Deadmons. “Randy is a good friend of mine. I’m up here all the time. It’s a wonder I wasn’t here today.”
Fowler said the week’s events represented “an ongoing thing.”
“They got what they deserved,” he said of the invaders.
Another neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said the Deadmons were a good Christian family.
In their front yard, two stone monuments carry the Ten Commandments. Next to the stones are a statue of Christ, two smaller angels and a flagpole.
Sherry Deadmon, who was on her way to the hospital to check on her John-Ross’ condition, said she was proud of her husband and son and their actions.
“I’m glad my family’s OK,” she added. “… Thank God we’re safe.”
As for the men who came to the house Friday?
“I forgive them, but they definitely need Jesus in their lives,” Sherry Deadmon said.
Starks faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon from Monday’s home invasion and Friday’s theft of a cell phone. He also is charged with conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon on Thursday.
Williams faces two counts each of attempted first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to rob with a dangerous weapon ó all related to Thursday and Friday.
Horne faces four counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon and three counts of conspiracy to rob with a dangerous weapon Monday, Thursday and Friday. Others named in conspiracy charges, according to arrest warrants, include Nigel Powers and Telvin Robinson.