Officers identified in Bladen Co. officer-involved shooting

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The State Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate an officer-involved shooting that killed a man from Elizabethtown.

Sheriff James McVicker said the incident happened in a wooded area near Dublin around 7 p.m. Tuesday Deputies say they tracked a man to the area off of Highway 41 after responding to a call about a man lying in a ditch with a gun in the 1100 block of Hickory Grove Ball Road.

Deputies say that man, Declan Owen, 24, was armed with a semi-automatic 9 mm gun about one-eighth of a mile from West Bladen High School. When the deputies say they asked him to show his hands, he pointed his gun at them.

Sheriff McVicker said Cpl. Cley Carroll of the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office and Donnie Williamson of the Bladenboro Police Department were the officers who shot Owen. Both men are on paid administrative leave, which is typical in officer-involved shooting investigations.

The SBI is assisting in the investigation; there’s no word on why Owen was in the ditch.

Owen was on probation for a DWI conviction in an incident that happened in 2013, according to the Department of Public Safety. The sheriff’s office records show arrests including the DWI, larceny and trespassing charges. According to state court records, Owen was due in court on larceny charges on March 30.