District attorney addresses suspect’s release from jail before police standoff

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The man involved in a nearly 10-hour standoff with police Monday morning had been arrested and released from jail just hours earlier. Now the district attorney is explaining why that happened.

It all started Sunday night around 10:40 when Wilmington Police officers responded to a trespassing call on Clayton Place. That’s where police found Reginald Lamont Wilkins, 40, who was taken to the New Hanover County Jail.

He was later released on an unsecured bond. About an hour later, police said they were called back to the same area about a man breaking into a woman’s home.

Police chased Wilkins to his grandmother’s home where the standoff began. On Tuesday, District attorney Ben David defended Wilkins’ release under an unsecured bond.

“The nature of the charge in the original instance was considered to be relatively minor in the grand scheme of things and that’s a trespassing charge,” David said. “In this time of COVID in particular, jail is a scarce resource which means we can’t put everybody in there. And so magistrates are under special directions right now to make sure that secured bonds are for people who are demonstrating violence, or are ones who are likely to be flight risks.”

Wilkins is now in jail under a $225,000 secured bond.