HAMLET — A man accused of randomly firing off shots Thursday night is also charged with holding up a convenience store.
Police were responding to several calls of a man shooting a gun near the railroad tracks along Hamlet Avenue when officers spotted 21-year-old Brandon Alexander Muldrow on Spring Street, according to Detective Capt. Randy Dover.
Muldrow, of Wayman Chapel Road outside of Hamlet, took off running, dropping the firearm and leading officers on a short foot chase before he was apprehended, Dover said.
During that investigation, officers connected Muldrow to an armed robbery the night before at the Circle K convenience store on Marlboro Street, accusing him of pulling a gun on a clerk and making off with an undisclosed amount of cash, according to Dover.
He is charged with one felony count each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon, as well as one misdemeanor count each of carrying a concealed weapon and resisting a public officer.
Muldrow was booked into the Richmond County Jail under a combined $65,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 10.
Online court records show Muldrow currently has charges of breaking or entering a motor vehicle, felony conspiracy and misdemeanor larceny pending in superior court, with an appearance scheduled for Aug. 7.
In a separate case, investigators say 21-year-old Quiteraus Gardner, of McArthur Drive in Rockingham, broke into a Quail Hollow home early Tuesday and assaulted a pregnant woman while she was asleep, resulting in minor injuries. He is also accused of snatching her phone away while she tried to call for help.
He was later arrested by Rockingham police and charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. Hamlet police charged him with a felony count of breaking and entering to terrorize or injure, battery of an unborn child, assault on a female interfering with emergency communications and injury to personal property.
Gardner has no other pending charges.
Dover said both men are validated gang members: Muldrow is affiliated with the Bloods, Gardner with the Crips.
Gardner was convicted of robbery with a dangerous weapon in 2015 and misdemeanor larceny in 2013, receiving a suspended sentence in both cases, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.
Muldrow’s most recent conviction, according to state records, was on a charge of misdemeanor breaking and entering in 2015. He was also convicted of attempted felony larceny in 2014 and served seven months.
He spent the first half of 2015 behind bars after his probation was revoked from a conviction on three counts of breaking and entering vehicles and the nearly eight months on a post-release revocation.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Reach William R. Toler at 910-817-2675.