A man wanted on a federal parole violation and a felony fleeing-to-elude charge was shot by Madison County deputies as they tried to serve an arrest warrant in Marshall on Thursday, according to the sheriff's office. The suspect was taken to a hospital with a non-life-threatening injury, and no deputies were hurt in the encounter.
Sheriff Buddy Harwood said deputies were attempting to apprehend the suspect in Marshall when the shooting occurred, according to WYFF4. The suspect was wanted for felony fleeing to elude, per the sheriff's office, along with a federal parole violation. Details on exactly what unfolded during the attempted arrest, including whether the suspect displayed a weapon, have not been released.
North Carolina law treats fleeing to elude arrest as a serious offense when aggravating factors are involved. Under N.C.G.S. ยง 20-141.5, the charge is elevated from a misdemeanor to a Class H felony when at least two aggravating factors are present, such as reckless driving or exceeding the speed limit by more than 15 mph, carrying a potential sentence of four to 39 months, according to the Carolina Attorneys.
How Officer-Involved Shootings Are Reviewed in North Carolina
Officer-involved shootings in North Carolina routinely draw independent review from the state's investigative arm. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation typically conducts inquiries into these incidents at the request of local district attorneys or police chiefs, gathering evidence and interviews before submitting findings to prosecutors who decide whether charges are warranted, according to Carolina Public Press. It remains unclear whether the SBI has opened a formal investigation into this shooting.
Madison County sits within North Carolina's 35th Prosecutorial District, where District Attorney Seth Banks oversees state criminal prosecutions stemming from local law enforcement actions and any resulting SBI investigations, per Blue Ridge Public Radio. Whether Banks will handle a review of this particular shooting has not been confirmed.
A Department Under Scrutiny
The shooting comes as the Madison County Sheriff's Office has faced its own share of outside scrutiny in recent years. Former Chief Deputy Bronis Coy Phillips faced court proceedings in July after an SBI investigation resulted in five felony and two misdemeanor charges tied to his conduct while employed at the department, with Phillips awaiting trial. Sheriff Harwood also settled a federal civil rights lawsuit in October 2023 by agreeing to overhaul the county detention center's strip search policy, restricting such searches to specific reasonable-suspicion criteria, according to a press release from Vickers Russe Law, PLLC, carried by Mountain Xpress.
Harwood has also made headlines for proactive safety measures during his tenure, including placing locked safes containing AR-15 rifles in all six Madison County public schools for school resource officers following the Uvalde, Texas school shooting. A vape-shop investigation also resulted in two arrests.
A Small Mountain Town in the Spotlight
Marshall, the county seat where the shooting took place, is a small mountain town along the French Broad River with an estimated population of just 811 residents. Madison County itself spans roughly 450 square miles along the Tennessee border and is part of the Asheville metropolitan area, with an estimated population of about 22,553 residents as of 2025. Neither the suspect's name nor further details about the warrant service have been released, and Hoodline could not independently confirm whether the SBI has taken up the case.
