A 42-year-old Tabor City man is facing a felony charge after he allegedly rammed another driver's SUV, punched him in the head, and then fired shots into his vehicle during a violent roadside confrontation in rural Columbus County. James Paul Inman was booked into the Columbus County Detention Center Saturday, four days after the alleged attack, on charges that include discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon, simple assault, driving while impaired, and a probation violation.
According to warrants cited by Columbus County News, Inman chased down and struck Joseph Boyd's 2013 Nissan Pathfinder near the intersection of Mollie Iron Hill Road and Peacock Road on August 25. Boyd sustained minor injuries in the encounter, the outlet reports. The warrants further allege that Inman struck Boyd in the head with his fist before firing shots into the SUV, according to the same account.
Booking records from the Columbus County Sheriff's Office show Inman was taken into custody at 9:49 am on August 29 under Booking ID 97606, with bond set at $5,000 plus an additional $500, as detailed in a Facebook post from the sheriff's office. The same detention report shows Inman was additionally charged with driving while license revoked and crossing the center line, expanding the scope of his legal exposure beyond the violent confrontation itself. Inman's listed address is 869 Miller Rd. in Tabor City, per the report.
What the Charges Could Mean in Court
The most serious count against Inman, discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle in operation, is classified as a Class D felony under North Carolina law, according to the North Carolina General Assembly's statute on the offense. Class D felonies in the state carry mandatory active prison sentences upon conviction. His assault with a deadly weapon charge, meanwhile, falls under a different classification: per guidance from Browning & Long PLLC, assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill or cause serious injury is a Class A1 misdemeanor, the highest misdemeanor level under state law, punishable by up to 150 days behind bars.
Inman's probation violation charge carries its own weight. Under North Carolina law, committing a new criminal offense is one of only three statutory grounds that allow a court to fully revoke probation and activate a defendant's suspended prison sentence, according to the Manning Law Firm. That means Inman's new charges alone could trigger separate consequences tied to whatever sentence he was previously serving on probation, independent of how the current case plays out.
A Rural Corridor With a History of Roadside Violence
The intersection where the confrontation allegedly unfolded sits in unincorporated Columbus County, within the Tabor City and Clarendon zip code area, according to property listing data from Realtor.com. Rural intersections in the county typically feature two-lane roads with minimal lighting. Peacock Road and Mollie Iron Hill Road also form a residential corridor that made local news in January when a major water main break prompted a boil water advisory for residents along both roads, as reported by Columbus County News.
This is not the first time gunfire has erupted on a Columbus County roadway. In December 2020, the Columbus County Sheriff's Office investigated a shooting at Swamp Fox Highway East and Complex Street in Tabor City, in which suspects opened fire on an occupied vehicle stopped at an intersection. The sheriff's office, led by Sheriff Bill Rogers, remains the primary agency responsible for investigating violent crimes and highway incidents across the county's unincorporated areas.
Had Boyd's injuries been more severe, the closest major trauma center would have been Columbus Regional Healthcare System in Whiteville, which operates a helipad for critical medical transports during violent or vehicular emergencies, as Hoodline has previously reported. Boyd's injuries in this case were described only as minor. Several details remain unresolved, including the underlying dispute between Inman and Boyd, whether Inman legally possessed the firearm given his probation status, and when he is scheduled to appear in Columbus County District Court.
