It was a routine night on patrol up until about 10 pm. Monitoring the frequency of the local sheriff’s department, Kent heard a call for assistance. There was a man in the woods firing a high powered rifle and Kent responded to the scene to assist.
The shooter was Clarence Douglas Phillips, 49, a man with an extensive criminal history. Public records show that Mr. Phillips went to prison for the first time as a 17 year old for breaking and entering and DUI. To be sent to prison as a 17 year old usually indicates that person has been in trouble with the law before then.
Not much had changed in Clarence Phillips life since then. The court system in Craven County had convicted him of punishable crimes at least seven times from 1983 until 2004 with four of those convictions resulting in prison time.
If you look at the NC Department of Corrections website, the offender search will tell you that Mr. Phillips’ last incarceration was in 2004-2005 when he served 20 months of a 27 month sentence for AWDWWITK. If you don’t know what AWDWWITK means, I will tell you…..Assault With Deadly Weapon With Intent To Kill. I don’t know any of the circumstances leading up to that arrest and conviction but I do know that 20 months served doesn’t seem long enough.
It is suspected that Mr. Phillips murdered his girlfriend, Cynthia Tillet Knighten, 49, shortly before driving her car into the woods and starting the stand off.
Isaac Grady called Lenoir County 911 at 9:56pm because someone was shooting near his house on Tick Bite Road in Grifton. It is not known exactly when it happened but Mr. Grady pointed out a spot in his house to a reporter that was hit by a bullet during the shooting. The bullet passed right through the wall and across a sleeping area where some of his family would have been sleeping that night. He is thankful that they were not in the bed at that time.
The arriving officers formed a perimeter around the area where the shots were coming from and with assistance from the NC State Highway Patrol helicopter they were able to pinpoint Clarence Phillips’ exact position.
Two of the deputies that responded to the scene were Detectives Allen Pearson and Ryan Dawson. They moved in with the Special Response Unit (SRU) to close in around Clarence Phillips and do whatever was needed to disarm him and end the danger posed by this renegade and his high powered rifle.
Using infrared night vision, the Highway Patrol helicopter was able to monitor the movement of the suspect and guide the team in to affect the arrest. Clearly outnumbered and surrounded from every side the suspect should have surrendered…..but he didn’t.
In what seems to have been his own death wish, Clarence Phillips sprung up and began firing at the officers as they approached him. The officers fired back and mortally wounded the suspect, bringing the standoff to an end.
Trooper Kent Bennett was on the outside perimeter, probably 100 yards away, when the shooting broke out. He immediately grabbed his medic bag and started toward the area where the shots had been fired.
Arriving at Allen Pearson’s side, Kent began to access his injuries and knew that Allen had been seriously wounded. He transferred Allen’s care to the paramedics who arrived quickly after him and turned his attention to checking for others who were hurt. At first, Detective Ryan Dawson did not realize that he had been wounded. He was too busy caring for Allen Pearson to notice that he had suffered a gunshot wound to his own neck.
Trooper Bennett applied direct pressure to Detective Dawson’s neck wound and kept that pressure applied as an SRU officer drove the ambulance to a landing zone at Dupont to meet the East Care Helicopter. Kent maintained pressure on the wound all the way from the woods on Tick Bite Road until Ryan was loaded into the helicopter and flown to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.
Detective Ryan Dawson
Quick thinking and good training put Trooper Kent Bennett into a position to be a hero that fateful night of April 7th, 2009. Kent went above and beyond the call of duty and his actions were instrumental in saving Detective Ryan Dawson’s life.
Detective Allen Pearson was pronounced dead after midnight at Lenoir Memorial Hospital. He had been wearing his body armor but the bullet hit in his shoulder area that is not protected by the vest. Allen was an eight year veteran of the Lenoir County Sheriff’s Department and was serving as a Detective at the time of his death.
Detective Allen Pearson
EOW: April 8, 2009
On May 15, 2010 Allen Pearson’s name will be added to the wall of fallen heroes at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC.
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