Person County Sheriff Jason Wilborn said what happened to those members of a U.S. Marshals Task Force could have just as easily happened to his own officers.
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After learning of the tragedy, he immediately recognized the name of the suspect.
"You come back the next day and find out the suspect involved was from your home county, it hits a little closer," Wilborn said.
Hughes first became a felon in 2010 after a conviction in connection to a 2009 burglary in Person County, and after years of a lengthy rap sheet spanning multiple North Carolina counties, including Alamance, and time behind bars, Hughes found himself in trouble again a few years ago in Person County
On a late night in October 2021, after getting a call, officers reported they found Hughes asleep at the wheel of a car in the middle of the road with his hand on a gun sitting in his lap, so they called for backup
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"They gave him verbal commands, they were able to verbally talk him out of, putting the gun down," Wilborn said.
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They recovered a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, 24 rounds of ammunition, a magazine, and marijuana. Hughes was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon.
But after that, he posted a $30,000 bond and vanished. Wilborn said he never showed up for court, prompting a warrant to be issued.
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The Person County case was one of the warrants active as Hughes likely knew officers were looking for him when he rained down gunfire at that home in Charlotte.
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Now, Wilborn is left wondering what if that had been his deputies that night.
"Looking at what happened and then seeing that my guys had with him back in 2021 and how that could have possibly ended in the same situation, it sends shivers down your spine for sure," Wilborn said. "Life can change in a nanosecond, you can make the ultimate decision or have the ultimate decision made against you in fractions of a second."
Hughes listed an address in a rural part of Person County, but it seems he had been on the run for a while. Wilborn called Hughes a "career criminal" and said he believed it may have been a bondsman looking into where he was that may have led to him being found in Charlotte.