Man sentenced to 9 years in prison for 2021 Harris Teeter parking lot shooting

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A local man will spend up to nine years in prison for a shooting that took place in a Harris Teeter parking lot in December of 2021.

52-year-old Robert Taylor pled guilty to Robbery with a Dangerous Weapon, Assault with a Deadly Weapon Inflicting Serious Injury and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon in New Hanover County Superior Court on Monday.

In addition, Taylor pled guilty to Discharging a Firearm into an Occupied Dwelling and another count of Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon for an unrelated incident that happened 19 days prior.

On November 27, 2021, officers were called to a home on Calhoun Drive. A man reported that a person who he could only identify as a black male named “New York” came to the residence and fired multiple shots into the house while the man and two others were inside. The reporting party
indicated that he thought the shooting may have been drug-related. Two .9mm shell casings were collected by law enforcement at the scene.

No arrests were made at that time.

On December 16, 2021, Wilmington police responded to 3501 Oleander Drive, where they found an adult male victim who had been robbed and shot in the stomach. The man was able to provide the nickname of the perpetrator as “New York,” an alias that police knew was used by Taylor.

A traffic stop later that evening led to his arrest, as well as the arrest of Fahey and another female. That female told police that Taylor and the victim were rivals in the drug and prostitution business. She stated that Taylor gave the gun used in the shooting to Fahey after the incident, who in turn took it to another male to dispose of. That man later contacted detectives and led them to the location of the gun. While in jail, Taylor made phone calls that were monitored by law enforcement that confirmed his attempt to get rid of the firearm.

The .9 mm handgun was test-fired by law enforcement. Preliminary results confirmed that the .9 mm shell casing collected from the Harris Teeter parking lot, along with shell casings seized outside of the Calhoun Drive residence, had been fired by the handgun seized after the Harris Teeter incident. Fahey later admitted that she was with Taylor the day he fired the shots into the home in November.