JACKSONVILLE — A 29-year-old North Carolina man arrested and charged with the shooting death of a Florida corrections officer has a history of violence in Rowan County.

Demaurea Grant, 29, was taken into custody without incident at 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 13, by the U.S. Marshals Service’s Fugitive Task Force at a home in Gastonia, one day after he reportedly shot and killed a sheriff’s deputy.

In the most recent incident, Grant allegedly shot and killed Deputy Brad NcNew, an off-duty Jacksonville corrections officer who was trying to stop Grant from assaulting a woman at a local truck stop. McNew reportedly witnessed Grant assaulting a woman around 1:20 a.m. at a Love’s Truck Stop and intervened. McNew, a 24-year veteran of the Jacksonville County Sheriff’s Office, had just finished a shift when he came across the domestic disturbance.

Witnesses told investigators they saw McNew ask the female if she was OK after Grant pulled her out of the driver’s seat of her car, placing a gun on the hood of the car. Grant allegedly responded instead, and witnesses told officials at one point he picked up the gun and pointing it at McNew, who was not in uniform at the time. Eventually the couple got into a black 2000 Ford Mustang, with Grant in the front passenger seat. Witnesses they saw Grant lean out of his window as the two were leaving and fire numerous shots at the deputy. McNew was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Mustang, which was driven by the woman McNew had tried to help, had North Carolina plates, and a massive manhunt was launched.

On Sunday, Grant was charged with murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, aggravated assault with a firearm and discharging a firearm in public, according to Jacksonville County Sheriff T.K. Waters.

But this was not Grant’s first crime and not his first assault on law enforcement officials. Grant is a former Salisbury resident who has spent time in the Rowan County Detention Center.

Grant, who lived in Salisbury at the time, stopped going to court during a two-day trial in Rowan County in September 2021. He was convicted in-absentia of the 2018 felony assault with a deadly weapon on a government official for trying to stab a corrections officer at Piedmont Correctional Institution with a homemade shank. A jury in Rowan County Superior Court found him guilty of the charge and at the time, court officials said Grant would be sentenced once he was located by authorities.  Grant had attempted to strike the officer after he refused to comply with commands by staff to return to his cell, the Rowan County District Attorney’s Office said at the time. The correctional officer sustained minor injuries during the incident. Records indicate Grant eventually served about nine months for the conviction.

In addition, while in custody on other charges, Grant was arrested in April 2020 for two misdemeanor counts of assault on a government official/officer for allegedly punching two Rowan County Sheriff’s Office deputies, acting as detention officers, in the face.

Grant was previously convicted of felony kidnapping and felony assault by strangulation and in 2019, was arrested on gun and drug charges by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Media accounts from 2018 show Grant was the prime suspect in the shooting death of Jarellia Montgomery, 38, but at the time, officials determined there was not enough evidence to pursue charges.

A woman was also arrested, according to Waters, and she is believed to be the one Grant was assaulting and who drove the vehicle, but her charges are related to another crime in North Carolina, and Waters did not provide any additional details.