Inmate charged with assault against officer

Published 12:00 am Monday, June 3, 2013

Authorities charged an inmate with hitting an officer with a broom handle while in the Rowan County Detention Center and damaging a window.
Michael Shane Lear, 37, of the 500 block of Sloop St., China Grove, was charged with assault of a government official, injury to personal property and misdemeanor larceny. Lear was also charged with violating a court order.
According to an arrest warrant, Lear struck a deputy in the side with a broom handle. The officer was at the time trying to control the situation after Lear tried to damage a detention center window with the broom handle. Lear also took a pair of handcuffs from an officer and repeatedly used it to beat against a window inside a cell door. Lear, according to the warrant, hit an officer who was trying to deploy his Taser. Lear remains in the Rowan County Detention Center under a $5,200 secured bond.
The following were other incidents this weekend:

The Salisbury Police charged two men with breaking into a Locke Street home where arrest warrants say the two took aluminum siding and copper wiring. Charged were Raphael Kinley Ravenell, 21, of the streets of Salisbury, and Demario Leshawn Whisonant, 24, of the 100 block of Elm Street, Salisbury, with felony breaking and entering and larceny after breaking and entering. Both remain in the Rowan County Detention Center, each under a $5,000 secured bond.

The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office charged two men with the April theft of aluminum from a Gold Hill business. Robert Glenn Sapp, 35, of the 700 block of Starnes Road, Salisbury, was charged with felony larceny, felony breaking and entering and larceny after breaking and entering. Robert Bryan Braswell, 36, of the 200 block of Brown Street, Rockwell, was charged with felony larceny.
Authorities say the two took four sheets of diamond plate aluminum from Orica USA Inc.
Sapp is accused of breaking into a workshop and storage building at the company. The company reported a number of tools including drills, saws, copper wiring as well as two laptops were taken.
Sapp remains in the county jail under a $5,000 secured bond and Braswell has since been released under a $2,500 secured bond.