Editor-in-Chief
“CAMPUS EMERGENCY – CRIMINAL ACTIVITY.”
This was the first warning that Salisbury University students received late Wednesday night that began a week of increased crime, prompting a campus lockdown and later included a bomb threat, a bank robbery and an attempted mugging.
The first incident occurred in an effort to arrest Edwin Fletcher, 31, on felony drug charges. A task force of Salisbury Police, Maryland State Police and members of the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office were part of an investigation to locate Fletcher, who was seen entering a parking lot near Market Street Inn in downtown Salisbury after 8 p.m.
Officers turned on their police lights and approached the vehicle while identifying themselves when Fletcher allegedly drove his truck up onto and then over the trooper’s car, injuring the trooper inside. The police officers on the scene opened fire at Fletcher while he was driving over the vehicle.
Fletcher fled the scene, later abandoning his car near Camden Avenue. There is no indication that Fletcher was injured and his location is unknown at this time. The trooper who was in the vehicle as well as a sheriff’s deputy who was injured at the scene were both released from the hospital later that night.
Police blocked off major roadways, deployed K-9 units and dispatched a helicopter in an attempt to locate the suspect. SU’s campus was locked down and underwent a search conducted by the University Police before the “all clear” was sent out late Wednesday night.