Washington’s Walmart parking lot became a crime scene Wednesday when five people were arrested and charged with drug possession.
Samuel Bernard Wiggins, 62, of Gum Street, Belhaven, Vivian Joy Clark, 32, of Chesterfield Drive, Washington, Cecil Bradford Walker, 32, of Chesterfield Drive, Washington, Silvia Gay, 55, of West 14th Avenue, Greenville, and James Edward Ross, 62, of 1284 Swamp Road, Pantego, were charged with felony possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia.
According to a press release from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office Drug Unit, at around 8 p.m. Wednesday night, a 911 caller told Washington Police Department Communications Center dispatchers that a group of people were using heroin in a vehicle parked in the Walmart parking lot. Sergeant Michael Sheppard, along with investigators with the drug unit, showed up to the scene. A search of the vehicle and its occupants turned up heroin packaged in wax paper bundles, used syringes and other drug paraphernalia associated with the intravenous use of heroin, said the release.
“It was like a biohazard scene,” said a spokesman for the drug unit, referring to the used syringes found in the SUV.
According to officials, an incident like the one found in Walmart’s parking lot is not so uncommon.
“It’s not the first time that we have caught people in business parking lots using heroin and other drugs,” the spokesman said. “It’s not just Walmart. It’s any parking lot where there are a lot of vehicles. Walmart just happens to have a lot of vehicles.”
He explained that drugs act as a common denominator, inspiring diverse groups of people to come together for the express purpose of buying and using drugs.
“The entire relationship between these people is based on heroin,” the spokesman said, referring to the five arrested and charged. “Drugs are the tie that binds. They bring people together who would have never associated or known each other, but they have that common connection.”
The five arrested were confined in the Beaufort County Detention Center: Gay, under a $1,000 secured bond; Walker, under a $5,000 secured bond; and Wiggins, under a $7,000 secured bond. Clark and Ross were both out on bond stemming from prior charges: Ross on an April trafficking in opiates charge; Clark, on a felony flee to elude charge from July 2012. Both were held at the jail under $10,000 bonds.