-Press Release, U.S. Department of Justice
Robert J. Higdon, Jr., the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, announces that Chief United States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced MAURICE SHAWAYNE HARRIS, a/k/a “Gator”, 38, of Oxford to 60 months’ imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised released.
On January 2, 2019, HARRIS pled guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon.
In January 2018, the Oxford Police Department attempted to make a traffic stop of a vehicle occupied by HARRIS, to investigate a report of shots fired in the area. HARRIS jumped and ran from the vehicle. Inside of that vehicle officers recovered a box of .38 caliber ammunition. Officers traced HARRIS’s flight path and recovered a Taurus model .38 caliber revolver. HARRIS was later arrested by the Oxford Police Department.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.
Since 2017 the United States Department of Justice has reinvigorated the PSN program and has targeted violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.
This case is also part of the Take Back North Carolina Initiative of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
This initiative emphasizes the regional assignment of federal prosecutors to work with law enforcement and District Attorney’s Offices on a sustained basis in those communities to reduce the violent crime rate, drug trafficking, and crimes against law enforcement. The investigation of this case was conducted by the Oxford Police Department and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
Assistant United States Attorney Robert J. Dodson prosecuted the case for the government.