Warren County Sheriff’s Deputy José Angel Deleon was responding to an emergency call involving a firearm when he collided with a deer in the roadway and then struck a tree outside Warrenton.
By Tyler Davis Source Henderson (N.C.) Daily Dispatch Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
WARRENTON, NC—Two Warren County Sheriff’s Office deputies, José Angel Deleon and Roy Carter Jr., died in unrelated incidents last week, Sheriff John Branche said in a Tuesday statement.
On Dec. 4, at around 6 p.m., the Warren County 9-1-1 center was contacted regarding a traffic accident on U.S. 401, about a mile outside Warrenton, involving a WCSO patrol vehicle. Emergency units arrived to find the vehicle on fire with Deleon inside. The fire was extinguished, and the medical examiner pronounced Deleon deceased on the scene.
Branche said Deleon was responding to an emergency call involving a firearm. Deleon, a Henderson resident, joined the Warren sheriff’s office in January of 2021.
First Sgt. Christopher Knox, a Highway Patrol spokesman, said Deleon struck a deer in the roadway on his way to respond to the emergency call, traveled off the road to the right and struck a tree.
The accident has drawn statewide notice, with Gov Roy Cooper commenting on it during Tuesday’s Council of State meeting, WRAL reported.
Cooper noted that the accident occurred while Deleon was on duty and on his way to the scene of “a purported crime,” and said, “Let’s keep his family in our prayers, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office in our prayers, and all of the people there.”
Earlier in the week, on Nov. 28, the Warren County 9-1-1 center responded to a call of a male person having a medical emergency at a Food Lion in Norlina. They identified him as Carter, a WCSO detention officer. An ambulance took him to Maria Parham Hospital, where he was then taken to Duke Regional Hospital.
On Dec. 3, Carter was removed from life support and died at about 7 p.m.
Carter had been a part of the sheriff’s office since 2011, having joined as a detention officer. He worked at Warren County Detention Center.