A 34-year-old Tabor City man is facing multiple felony charges after he allegedly called 911 repeatedly claiming someone was trying to kill him while he was alone, then broke into a former partner's home, threatened her with a kitchen knife and forced her into his truck. Daniel Lee Harris was arrested on Sept. 5 and remains jailed on charges including second-degree kidnapping, felonious restraint and misuse of the 911 emergency system.
Court warrants obtained by Columbus County News lay out the sequence of events leading to Harris's arrest, describing the erratic 911 calls followed by the break-in, the alleged theft of the knife, and the forced entry into his Ford truck. According to court documents cited by WWAYTV3, Harris allegedly restrained the woman and moved her from a home in Tabor City in a vehicle, in what court records describe as a domestic violence offense stemming from a former or recent dating relationship. Per a magistrate's order, Harris allegedly confined the woman without her consent for the purpose of terrorizing her.
The stolen kitchen knife was valued at $7, according to court records referenced in the same report. Harris was also charged with misdemeanor domestic violence, larceny after breaking and entering, and misuse of the 911 system, on top of the kidnapping and felonious restraint counts, the outlet reports.
Bond Set Sharply Different Across Charges
Columbus County Detention Center records show Harris was ordered held without bond on the second-degree kidnapping charge, while a $10,000 surety bond was set on the misuse of 911 charge, according to Columbus County News. The booking record lists no bond amount at all for the kidnapping charge, the station's report notes, underscoring how seriously the county is treating the allegation.
Under North Carolina General Statute § 14-39, second-degree kidnapping is a Class E felony carrying up to 63 months in prison, according to the Manning Law Firm. The grading hinges on whether the victim was released in a safe place without suffering serious injury or sexual assault — a distinction that separates it from first-degree kidnapping, a Class C felony punishable by up to 231 months. Felonious restraint, the other major felony Harris faces, is defined under North Carolina General Statute § 14-43.3 as unlawfully restraining and transporting a person in a motor vehicle without consent, according to Arnold & Smith PLLC, and carries a maximum term of 33 to 49 months as a Class F felony.
The misuse of 911 charge is a far lesser offense by comparison. Misuse of the emergency telephone system is a Class 1 misdemeanor under North Carolina General Statute § 14-111.4, according to the Powers Law Firm, punishable by up to 120 days in jail for knowingly accessing emergency lines for non-emergency purposes.
Prior Court History and Scheduled Appearance
WWAYTV3 reports that Harris has separate failure-to-appear charges tied to misdemeanors, with one listed as time served and two others listed as dropped. Harris waived his right to a probable cause hearing with the consent of his attorney, court records indicate, and was scheduled to appear in Columbus County District Court on Sept. 8. Local law enforcement records also show Harris was previously arrested in Tabor City in January 2019 on two counts of larceny, a case documented by the Tabor-Loris Tribune.
Tabor City sits at the southernmost tip of Columbus County along the South Carolina border, a rural municipality of 3,781 residents as of the 2020 U.S. Census. The town's median household income sits under $39,000, with a poverty rate exceeding 30 percent, according to Census figures.
A Pattern of Violent Crime in Columbus County
The arrest adds to a string of serious violent cases out of Columbus County in recent weeks. Hoodline previously reported on a Tabor City man jailed after ramming, punching and shooting into an SUV, while suspects in a Whiteville shootout were held without bond following a gun battle on Ward Street, and a Whiteville stepfather and mother were held without bond in a child sex abuse case.
Columbus County's violent crime rate stood at 604 per 100,000 residents, nearly double the statewide rate of 312 per 100,000, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, with aggravated assault accounting for 78.5 percent of local violent crimes. State health data separately shows intimate partner violence was linked to 17.4 percent of North Carolina homicides with known circumstances in 2023, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, with 95.5 percent of identified intimate partner violence incidents resulting in fatal injuries.
North Carolina law also allows victims of domestic violence involving current or former dating partners to seek civil protective orders under Chapter 50B of the General Statutes, independent of any criminal charges filed by police. It remains unclear whether any such protective order was in place before or was filed after this incident. All charges against Harris remain allegations at this stage, and the case has not yet been adjudicated in court.
