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FRIDAYJune 82012

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4 arrests in hammer assault in Halifax County

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Vol. 98, No. 45 © 2012 Th e Daily Herald

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INSIDE TODAY

Contributed by UNCW AthleticsTyler Deloatch was selected in the 26th round by the Los Angeles Angels.Complete story on page A10

2009 Roanoke Rapids graduate Tyler Deloatch was drafted in the 26th round of the Major League Baseball draft by the Los Angeles Angels. Deloatch, a junior at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, said he would wait to see the offer before making a decision.

Play ball?

Contributed to The Daily HeraldIn 1989, the original Lakeland Singers met at Larry Williams’ home in Littleton for rehearsal. Pictured are, front row from left, Wrenn Phillips, conductor, Debbie Phillips, pianist, Claude Edwards, second row, Neal Tilghman, Anne Wilkinson, Gladys Prince, Cheryl Sebrell, Beth Godwin, Melinda Hux, third row, Larry Williams, Brady Martin and Bill Boe.

Greatest hits, celebrationBY DELLA ROSE

STAFF WRITE

LITTLETON — The Lakeland Singers will celebrate their 25th anniversary starting at 8 p.m. Saturday with a Greatest Hits concert.

A reception will be held for the public immediately follow-ing the concert.

With Judith Harris on piano and Brian Miller on keyboard, Conductor Wrenn Phillips said the show is made up of audi-ence favorites performed by the choral group over the years.

It features popular songs from Broadway and movies over the past 50 years, including “Climb Every Mountain” from The Sound of Music, “All I Ask of

You,” from “Phantom of the Op-era,” “Over the Rainbow” from the “Wizard of Oz,” and other favorites like “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes “ and “Dream a Little Dream of Me.”

Phillips, who’s been directing choral groups about 45 years, said about the chosen songs for the concert, “We think they have a nice fl ow and message. It’s kind of a dream theme.”

He said when the group began 25 years ago, he wasn’t expect-ing they would still be going strong, but he’s proud they are.

Phillips said the group per-forms twice a year at Lakeland, and travels for shows. He said the most notable concert was at the state Masonic Convention in

Raleigh about 20 years ago.Phillips said two of the origi-

nal singers still perform with the group, Anne Wampler and Larry Williams.

He said Wampler still per-forms with the group even though she now lives in Rich-mond, Va. “She loved it so much and she’s been with us the whole time,” he said.

Williams said he remembers the group’s very fi rst rehearsal.

“How we started,” he said, “Mark Taylor got together with a band that used to come to Lakeland at Christmas and play. Their idea was to start a local orchestra with local amateurs and combine with a choral sing-

Detective to rank of deputy police chief

BY ROGER BELL

STAFF WRITER

Investigators believe Timothy Hendricks was specifi cally targeted the night of June 12, 2004, when he was shot and killed in his back yard.

Maj. Bruce Temple, lead investigator for the Halifax County Sheriff ’s Offi ce, said he defi nitely believes Hendricks was a tar-get, though the crime suggests robbery was a motive for certain, with Hendricks’ murder per-haps stemming from that motive. Or, Temple

said, it’s possible the three men who broke into Hendricks’ home in the 5,000 block of Ita Road in Enfi eld that night came to kill him.

The crime occurred sometime in the over-night hours — police

received the call at 3:06 a.m. Temple said Hen-dricks and two male friends were away from Hendricks’ home at a gathering. While there, Hendricks received a call from neighbors that his dogs were barking a

lot.“This was obviously

suspicious enough that a neighbor would call to tell him,” Temple said.

Hendricks, who, Tem-ple said, was known to be involved in the busi-ness of illegal drugs, and his two friends returned to the house and checked the out-side perimeter. Finding nothing, the three men entered the house.

“They hadn’t been in there long when three black males approached them from a back room of the (single-wide trail-

er,)” Temple said. “They were wearing black and wearing masks. One of the males was armed with a handgun, a sec-ond man was armed with a stun gun.”

Temple said the men

in black asked specifi -cally which of the three victims was Timothy Hendricks, lending credence to the theory Hendricks was a spe-cifi c target. The victims

Timothy Hendricks: Shot and killed in his backyard

www.rrdailyherald.com

Roger Bell | The Daily HeraldRoanoke Rapids Interim Police Chief Jeff Hinton, left, named Det. Sgt. Tommy Hathaway to the position of Deputy Police Chief effective July 1. The announcement came during city council’s Tuesday meeting.

BY ROGER BELL

STAFF WRITER

Det. Sgt. Tommy Ha-thaway has wanted to be a cop since he was a little boy.

“My father was a fi re-fi ghter,” Hathaway, orig-inally from Chesapeake, Va., said. “So wanting to be in public service and having a desire to help is sort of a genetic thing with me.”

Hathaway, who will begin serving the city as Deputy Police Chief July 1, began his career with the Scotland Neck Police Department and

has served with the town of Weldon, the Halifax County Sher-iff ’s Offi ce and the Roa-noke Rapids Police De-partment, for a total of 21 years. He currently serves as lead narcotics investigator for the city department.

As his career reaches a level he’s always had as a goal, Hathaway can now refl ect on a time when a hand injury on Oct. 5, 1995, nearly end-ed his career.

“I was medically re-tired for a year and a half,” Hathaway said. “(Doctors) told me I would never return to police work, but my only desire when doc-

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“They gunned him down in cold blood. Even if they were there to rob him, once someone makes their escape, they can stop at that point. The gunman didn’t choose to do that.”

— Maj. Bruce Temple, Halifax County Sheriff’s Office

Next challenge for Hathaway starts July 1