911 caller said group was searching for stolen trailer before deadly Cumberland shooting
A 911 call from the friend of a Smith Road homicide victim reveals he and others had tracked a stolen trailer to the area when the thieves opened fire on them last week.
"My boy's trailer was getting robbed and he had a GPS on it, and we had called the cops about it and they were on their way," the caller said in the 10:46 p.m. call on Nov. 20. "We got there before the cops did... One of our boys got shot up."
According to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, Jossiel Rodriguez-Perez, 40, was pronounced dead at the hospital following the shooting in the 3000 block of Smith Road.
Rodriguez-Perez was an army veteran who served with the 82nd Airborne Division, a Fort Liberty spokesman confirmed. County birth records indicate he was the father of three young children.
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911 calls
His friends' 911 call was the third to dispatchers in the minutes after gunfire rang out on the short dead-end street off Cumberland Road.
In the first call, a man said he was standing near the victim and the caller can be heard telling someone police were on the way.
When asked if the victim was bleeding, the man said, "I don't see any blood."
Four minutes into the call, the man said police had arrived at the scene.
"I don't see blood on him, but there was a crowd of gunshots," the caller seemed to say to someone near him.
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The second call to 911 came from a frightened woman who whispered to the dispatcher and pleaded for law enforcement to arrive. At one point, she told the dispatcher she thought people were in her backyard.
According to the dispatch log, the suspect vehicle was either a white GMC Denali or a white Ford F150 pulling a red trailer. The record states that the trailer was 24 feet long and did not have a license plate.
As of Friday, no arrest had been made in the case.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Homicide Detective Sgt. J. Mcleod at 910-677-5548. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling Fayetteville/Cumberland County CrimeStoppers at 910-483-TIPS (8477); visiting http://fay-nccrimestoppers.org online; or by downloading the FREE “P3 Tips” app available for mobile devices.
Public safety reporter Joseph Pierre can be reached at jpierre@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Jossiel Rodriguez-Perez was killed on Smith Road in Cumberland County
