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Press Release

Two Robeson County Men Sentenced for Robbery and Gun Crimes

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of North Carolina

RALEIGH – United States Attorney Robert J. Higdon, Jr. announced that Chief United States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle sentenced DANIEL THOMPSON  22, of Fairmont, North Carolina, to 112 months’ imprisonment and ELIJAH MITCHELL 24, of Lumberton, North Carolina, to 125 months’ imprisonment.

THOMPSON and MITCHELL were named in a two-count Indictment on March 6, 2019. Count One charged both men with Interference with Commerce by Means of Robbery and Aiding and Abetting, and Count Two charged both men with Brandishing a Firearm during a Crime of Violence and Aiding and Abetting.  On June 19, 2019, both men pled guilty to both counts.

On September 9, 2018, around 6:30 a.m., THOMPSON and MITCHELL entered a Murphy USA gas station located in Fayetteville, North Carolina. There, THOMPSON approached the store clerk and brandished a firearm at her while demanding money from the cash register. MITCHELL then jumped over the counter and stood by the victim as she removed money from the cash registers. In addition to the money, cartons of cigarettes and other tobacco products were also stolen from the store. Surveillance video captured the robbery, and law enforcement disseminated still shots of the robbery, which ultimately led to identification and arrest of THOMPSON and MITCHELL.

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.

That effort has been implemented through 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 in those communities on a sustained basis to reduce the violent crime rate, drug trafficking, and crimes against law enforcement.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Fayetteville Police Department and the Fairmont Police Department investigated this case.  Assistant United States Attorney Chad E. Rhoades prosecuted the case for the government.

Updated September 27, 2019

Topic
Project Safe Neighborhoods