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Public Safety

  • School chief says drivers' backgrounds are checked

    HILLSVILLE — All Carroll County Public School employees go through an extensive checklist before starting work to protect the safety of students, according to schools Superintendent Strader Blankenship.
    A June 14 incident recently came to light, in which a substitute bus driver got pulled over by police for driving erratically. He was subsequently charged with driving while intoxicated and reckless driving.
    This resulted in questions from the public about background checks for school employees, Blankenship told The Gazette.

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  • Authorities find meth lab in Cana

    HILLSVILLE ― Cooperation from Stokes County, N.C., law enforcement led the Carroll Sheriff’s Office and Virginia State Police to search a Cana home on Tuesday and charge two individuals.
    An informant gave tips to the Stokes County officers about a possible active methamphetamine manufacturing operation. That information resulted in the search warrant being issued for 88 Childrens Lane the morning of June 24, according to Carroll Investigator Donnie Spangler.

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  • Motorcycle crashes roadblock during chase

    A Galax man faces multiple charges after allegedly leading police on a pursuit on a motorcycle the night of June 22.
    Grayson County Chief Deputy David Ashby said Deputy Jordan Johnson was on routine patrol on U.S. 58 around midnight near Baywood Market when he noticed a 1986 Honda motorcycle without a taillight. He was following the motorcycle and didn’t see a license plate.
    The motorcycle turned onto Delhart Road, and when Johnson turned on his emergency lights, he reported that the motorcycle took off.

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  • Driver charged for DUI in school bus

    HILLSVILLE — A former Carroll County Public Schools substitute driver for summer faces two class 1 misdemeanor charges after allegedly operating a bus while drunk.
    Ricky Lee Phillips, 51, will no longer be a bus driver for Carroll schools after the June 14 incident, when Hillsville Police Department Patrolman Billy Anauo charged him with a first-offense driving of a commercial motor vehicle while intoxicated and reckless driving, according to Carroll court records.

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  • Pursuit comes to 'shocking' conclusion

    HILLSVILLE — A man who allegedly ran from police after a domestic dispute ended up getting tasered by police in a Hickory Hills Shopping Center store on June 18, according to Hillsville Police Department Captain James Alderman.
    Hillsville police officers received a call reporting a domestic on Howlett Street at Westview Terrace Apartments, Alderman said.
    Sgt. Jason Hawks responded. When he arrived on the scene, a suspect named James Berlin Linville, 35, fled on foot towards the shopping center.

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  • Money stolen from Peking Palace

    HILLSVILLE — Town police have asked for help from the public in solving a theft from Peking Palace on June 18.
    Hillsville Police Department Investigator Alan Gravley continues to look into the incident at the restaurant at 2664 Old Galax Pike, according to Captain James Alderman.
    “Apparently, the owner or the manager was distracted by individual or individuals and a bank deposit bag with an undisclosed amount of money and a wallet was taken,” Alderman reported. “The wallet was recovered over in Wytheville,” on Peppers Ferry Road.

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  • Suspected construction scammers arrested

    HILLSVILLE — The Hillsville Police Department has charged two North Carolina men with grand larceny by false pretenses after investigating a report by two elderly women that they had been the victims of a recent scam, according to a news release from Carroll Sheriff J.B. Gardner.
    On June 6, two men stopped at a residence in Hillsville and informed the two women that their roof was in desperate need of repair, the news release said.
    The two elderly women could not go outside and look at their roof and believed that the two men were telling the truth.

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  • RV fire was potentially explosive

     

    HILLSVILLE — Hillsville Fire Department members answered a call on Interstate 77 Thursday that photographer David Young said "was literally a ticking time bomb." 

    The 11:30 a.m. incident involved an RV and trailer burning near the 19 mile marker.

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  • Carroll schools improving security

    HILLSVILLE — Even as Carroll educators prepare for some much-needed improvements at the high school, another contractor will secure the doors of each facility in the county.
    Officials have asked Ken-Nect Communications to install the security measures at the high school first, so that work won’t interfere with the update to the heating and air conditioning system; connecting the facility to natural gas service; and creating a science, technology, engineering and math lab, according to Superintendent Strader Blankenship at the June 13 school board meeting.

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  • Cana man dies in N.C. crash

    A Cana man died on Monday from critical injuries sustained in a June 14 motorcycle accident on Pipers Gap Road.
    Stanley Gray Collins, 75, was traveling on Pipers Gap Road in Galax heading to Mount Airy, N.C., when he reportedly lost control of his motorcycle, according to Surry County, N.C., Emergency Services Director John Shelton.
    The motorcycle veered off of the road and struck a utility pole and a mailbox located at 309 Wise Man’s Trail. “He had critical injuries on the scene,” Shelton said.

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