# Suspect in PlayStation 3 robbery killed



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

WILMINGTON, N.C. - A teenager accused of robbing a student of two new Playstation 3s on the day the popular game consoles were introduced was shot to death by police sent to arrest him.

Peyton Strickland, 18, was killed Friday at a house he shared with three roommates, New Hanover County Sheriff Sid Causey said.
"If this boy would've come to the door, opened the door, we probably wouldn't be talking," the sheriff said Sunday.
Roommate Mike Rhoton said Strickland was unarmed, but may have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers.
Authorities promised Monday to fully investigate the fatal shooting. "No one is above the law and no one is beneath its protection," District Attorney Ben David said. He declined to discuss details of the case.
The State Bureau of Investigation is examining the case and three deputies on the team were placed on paid leave, normal practice whenever officers fire their weapons, Causey said.
Arrest warrants alleged that Strickland, a student at Cape Fear Community College, and a University of North Carolina-Wilmington student stole two PlayStation units from another UNC-Wilmington student that day.
The sheriff said the robbery victim had waited three days in line to buy two Playstation 3 units for $641 each at a Wal-Mart. He was unloading the units at his campus apartment when one man beat him to the ground while another took the PlayStations, Causey said.
The sheriff said Strickland was shot by members of a a special police unit who went to help university officers serve warrants. He would not say why the special team was assisting.
Strickland's dog, a German shepherd, also was shot to death.
The second man named in the warrants was arrested at another address and was released on bail on Saturday, authorities said.
The nationwide introduction of the Sony game system on Nov. 17 was marked by rowdy crowds and store stampedes. One buyer waiting in line at a Connecticut store was shot by armed robbers.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Online gun picture alerted NC. police before the search, shooting incident*

Mandy Locke, Staff Writer
The News & Observer 
WILMINGTON- When police came to search Peyton Strickland's rented house for stolen PlayStation 3 video games, they feared they might find him amid a small arsenal of firearms, according to a search warrant released late Monday.

Police found snapshots on the Internet of a man they suspected to be Strickland's robbery partner posing with what appeared to be an assault rifle, pistols and a shotgun. A detective had seen a car belonging to the man, Ryan David Mills, 20, parked at Strickland's rental home, according to the search warrant, which also included two images of young men with guns.
When UNC-Wilmington campus police headed to the home Friday, they brought reinforcements picked from the New Hanover Sheriff's Office's elite, highly trained and heavily armed emergency responders unit, Sheriff Sid Causey said Monday morning.
Causey said campus police thought the search and arrest would be "high risk." Causey's men agreed to force their way in, then let UNCW police look for stolen goods, the sheriff said Monday.
The search didn't go as planned.
Deputies shot Strickland, an 18-year-old Durham native attending Cape Fear Community College, in the foyer of his home. A bullet in the head killed him; at least one more struck his chest, according to the state medical examiner's office. His German shepherd, Blaze, was also shot to death; at least four other bullets riddled the home's front hallway.
Strickland's roommate, Mike Rhoton, told the Star-News of Wilmington on Saturday that deputies kicked in the door and shot at his friend. He said Strickland might have come to the door with a wireless game controller in his hand.
It all started Nov. 17, when Justin Raines, a UNCW freshman from Apex, headed to a friend's dormitory with two $641 PlayStation 3 video games he and his twin brother had camped out at Wal-Mart to buy. Two men accosted him, and one hit him on the head with some sort of blunt object; his twin brother said Justin was also bruised in the ribs.
A surveillance video camera in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart captured where police think the robbers began tailing Raines and showed two young men getting into a gold Pontiac, according to the search warrant. Campus police sent the video over e-mail to every professor and student.
A tipster eventually called UNCW police informing on Strickland and Mills, according to the search warrant. Police matched the driver's license photos of the men to their images in the surveillance video. Campus police began staking out Strickland's Long Leaf Acres Drive home.
Mills lived elsewhere, but the search warrant indicates he might be hanging out at Strickland's home. The online photos of Mills made police suspect he could be armed, and UNCW police had received information that Mills was known to carry a firearm, the warrant stated.
The warrant also pointed out that Strickland had been charged with assault in September after a UNCW student complained Strickland punched him so hard that his jaw shattered.
The court papers showed that after the shooting officers took from the house four marijuana water pipes, and several bullet fragments and shell casings among other items.
Officials offered no explanation Monday about what prompted deputies to fire Friday night. Three deputies have been placed on paid leave pending a review by State Bureau of Investigation agents.
Mills has been charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, and breaking and entering a motor vehicle.
Strickland would have faced the same charges.
New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David said Monday that he would "go where the truth leads."
"No one is above the law, and no one is beneath its protection," David said.
The prosecutor has reached out to Strickland's father, Don Strickland, a personal injury and wrongful death attorney in Raleigh. David said he planned to meet Strickland's parents today.
At the modest brick house Strickland shared with his hometown roommates, friends gathered Monday evening to remember the lean boy who had a knack for mechanics. Teenage girls dropped bouquets of flowers into the 1964 motorboat Strickland rebuilt. The young people clutched candles and choked back sobs as one young man sang Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."

Copyright 2006 The News and Observer








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## 209 (Jun 18, 2005)

I take it that he was white because there was no uproar by Sharpton or march on Washington.


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## Goose (Dec 1, 2004)

> Roommate Mike Rhoton said Strickland was unarmed, but may have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers.


Oh, the irony of the whole situation...

At least he wasn't playing Duck Hunt when they bashed his door down.


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