Hillsborough Police Arrests 2 on Explosives Charges

Hillsborough police have arrested two individuals who law enforcement says were in possession of an explosive device.

The alleged device was found early Thursday morning, police said in a release, in a vehicle parked by the Walmart on Hampton Pointe Boulevard. Members of the Durham County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad came in to assist and the “device was rendered harmless.”

The incident started around 1:30 a.m. Thursday when a Hillsborough Police officer made contact with a man and woman who police said were sleeping in a vehicle in the parking lot with its door open. Several orders for arrest in Wilson and Duplin counties for one of the individuals. A subsequent search of the vehicle led officers to discover drug paraphernalia and “a homemade explosive device within a bag in the vehicle.”

The bomb squad was then requested from Durham County and the area was reopened around 5:30 a.m. Thursday.

“At this point, it appears these people had stopped while traveling through our area,” Hillsborough Police chief Duane Hampton said in a release. “We have not linked them to any activity in our area but are sharing the information with other jurisdictions.”

In addition to the orders for arrest from other counties, 33-year-old Jimmy Ray Poythress, of Wilson County, has now been charged with felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction, felony possession of a firearm by a felon and misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

The second individual in the vehicle, 30-year-old Brandy Renee Benson, of Johnston County, was charged with felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction.

Poythress is being held at the Orange County Jail under a $117,000 bond. Benson was assigned a $25,000 bond.

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