A 60-year-old man wanted for a stabbing death in Raleigh, N.C., was taken into custody Aug. 14 after a confrontation and foot chase in the Plymouth Meeting Mall parking lot, the Plymouth Township Police Department said in an official arrest report.
Rickey Andra Harper now faces a first-degree murder charge in the death of Sheremy Gwenette Dillard, 57, a high school girls' basketball coach found stabbed inside her Raleigh home Aug. 13. He is being held without bail at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility and awaits an extradition hearing at the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.
How the arrest unfolded
Raleigh police contacted Plymouth Township detectives at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, with intelligence that Harper was near the Courtyard Marriott Hotel at 651 Fountain Road, possibly driving a white Chevrolet Astro van with North Carolina plates.
Plymouth Township detectives set up surveillance around the hotel and nearby businesses. They spotted the van parked at Plymouth Meeting Mall.
When Harper walked from the mall toward the van, detectives moved in. According to the department's report, Harper refused to surrender, kept his right hand in his pants pocket and yelled at officers to shoot him. After a brief standoff that moved through the parking lot, Harper ran back toward his van. Detectives caught him.
Harper was taken into custody without injury, ABC11 reported.
The Raleigh homicide
Raleigh police found Dillard dead inside her home on Whistling Straits Way around 12:18 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, after family members reported they had not heard from her, NBC Philadelphia reported. Her family told officers she lived at the home with Harper, who was not there when police arrived.
Investigators used Flock license-plate-reader cameras to develop leads that helped identify Harper as a suspect, according to Raleigh police. The Wake County District Attorney's Office authorized the first-degree murder charge.
Dillard was the head coach of the girls' basketball team at Felton Grove High School in Apex, N.C. Plymouth Township's own Flock camera network also played a role in tracking Harper to the area, as we reported Aug. 16.
What's next
Harper remains at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility without bail. No date has been set for the extradition hearing at the Court of Common Pleas.
