Without license plate recognition (LPR) in local road cameras, Southern Shores Police Chief David Kole said Tuesday, “we may not have found the guy” who subsequently was charged in the July 31 fatal shooting at the Avalon Pier in Kill Devil Hills.
With the assistance of LPR, six armed and vested SSPD officers, including Chief Kole, were able to stop the fleeing suspect, later identified as 16-year-old Henry Lee Hargis, in Kitty Hawk at the new Emergency Management Station on the U.S. 158 bypass.
“We took him out at gunpoint,” the Chief told the Town Council at its meeting last Tuesday, suggesting that the stop could have ended quite badly for the alleged shooter, had he resisted.
The “tragic” shooting death of Zane Hughes, 19, of Colington, in the Avalon Pier parking lot, “was a wake-up call” for everyone, Chief Kole said. Not only is the Outer Banks not insulated from gun violence in a public place, but the alleged violent offender may be someone known to local police.
A 15-year-old boy vacationing from Pennsylvania also was shot in the leg by a bullet allegedly fired by Hargis that ricocheted. He was flown to Norfolk General Sentara, where he was treated and released.
Hargis has been charged as an adult in Dare County with first degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
He is scheduled to appear Wednesday at the Dare County Courthouse in Manteo for a probable cause hearing before Chief District Court Judge Robert Trivette.
Probable cause hearings are for the purpose of determining if there is enough evidence to proceed with criminal charges against a defendant.
[UPDATE ON AUG. 11, 2025: According to The Coastland Times, Dare County District Attorney Jeff Cruden announced this morning that a grand jury has indicted Henry Lee Hargis on first degree murder in the shooting death of Zane Hughes and on assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury in the wounding of the 15-year-old bystander. Mr. Hargis’s next court date is Oct. 13, The Times reported.]
Chief Kole complimented all police, fire, and emergency medical service departments on the beach who participated in responding to the shooting and apprehending the suspect.
Everyone “did a heck of a job,” he said, in a situation that, had people not kept their cool, might have become “chaotic.”
THE BEACON’S OPINION: E-BIKES CAN BE REGULATED NOW
In more routine business, Chief Kole brought the Town Council up to date on the status of a N.C. Senate Bill designed to give local governments explicit authority to regulate electric bicycles.
Proposed Senate Bill 576 would change the definition of an “electric-assisted bicycle,” contained in N.C. General Statutes 20-4.01(7a), by establishing three different classes of e-bikes based on motor assistance and speed, and also explicitly authorize cities to regulate the use of e-bikes within municipal limits.
The three e-bike classes are based on federal law; we will not reproduce the definitional language here. (See the link to S.B. 576 below.)
S.B. 576 is currently in the Senate Transportation Committee, where the last action occurred May 6. For a copy of the bill, see https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2025/Bills/Senate/PDF/S576v2.pdf.
Besides granting municipalities explicit authority to regulate e-bikes, S.B. 576 would mandate that a person under age 18 operating a “Class 3” electric-assisted bicycle, which is one equipped with a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and ceases to assist once the bike reaches 28 miles per hour, must wear a helmet.
Although Chief Kole explained that N.C. “statute” currently requires municipalities to treat e-bikes like regular bicycles on the road and on sidewalks and prevents the Town from restricting their use, we find no statute to that effect, and the Chief did not provide a legal citation.
It may be that N.C. towns have decided not to restrict the use of e-bikes on municipal roads, sidewalks, multiuse paths, etc.; establish e-bike speed limits, and require helmets for e-bike riders under the age of 18, but we see nothing in the N.C. General Statutes that would prevent the Town from doing all of the above now.
N.C.G.S. 20-4.01 is a definitional statute within the Motor Vehicles Chapter of the General Statutes. Section 20-4.01(7a) defines an “electric assisted bicycle” as:
“A bicycle with two or three wheels that is equipped with a seat or saddle for use by the rider, fully operable pedals for human propulsion, and an electric motor of no more than 750 watts, whose maximum speed on a level surface when powered solely by such a motor is no greater than 20 miles per hour.”
The only other mention of e-bikes in the N.C. General Statutes is in the definition of a “vehicle,” as set forth in N.C.G.S. 20-4.01(49), where it says:
“. . . electric assisted bicycles shall be deemed vehicles and every rider of . . . an electric assisted bicycle upon a highway shall be subject to the provisions of this Chapter applicable to the driver of a vehicle except those which by their nature can have no application. . . . ”
Elsewhere in the Motor Vehicles Chapter, a “highway” is defined as synonymous with a public “street” and its “cognates.” N.C.G.S. 20-4.01(13).
Section 20-4.01(49) may be the source for the assumption that e-bike riders must be at least 16 years old, as the Chief stated, because that requirement is not set forth explicitly in the General Statutes, either.
Two Town Council members, Mark Batenic and Rob Neilson, spoke at the meeting about the hazards posed by e-bikes, and Mr. Neilson, who shared a harrowing personal experience, proposed that the Town prepare an ordinance regulating them now.
In Town Council discussions about e-bikes nearly three years ago, Mr. Batenic cited e-bikers’ excessive speed and disregard of street signage as dangerous behavior that should be addressed. He was eager then to take action, but he was in the minority. See The Beacon, 10/28/22 and 11/2/22.
Mayor Pro Tem Matt Neal emerged in 2022 as an advocate for e-bikers who would not like to see them banned from sidewalks and other multiuse paths. He did not comment during the Aug. 5 meeting.
Certainly, Chief Kole is not happy with the reckless e-biker behavior that he has witnessed and of which he is aware, describing it as a “bad thing waiting to happen.” He related the story of an e-biker on South Dogwood Trail who passed a police officer going an estimated 48 mph, “turned right” at the South-East-North Dogwood Trail intersection “and went flying” into a yard.
The “intoxicated” 20-year-old, who was not wearing a helmet, went to the hospital, where he was assessed as banged up, but not seriously hurt.
We would suggest that Chief Kole and Councilmen Batenic and Neilson get together with one of the Town attorneys and obtain a legal opinion on what the N.C. General Statutes allow the Town to do now. Our reading of S.B. 576 is that it is not going to be enacted by the N.C. General Assembly any time soon.
IN OTHER POLICE NEWS, new Police Officer Chana Varon, an Outer Banks native who raised a family and worked in Atlanta for 28 years before turning to law enforcement, was sworn into office, and Chief Kole introduced new Deputy Chief of Police James Kelly Jones, a Camden County native.
The Chief also honored Corporal Darrell T. Brickhouse for his 20 years of service with the Southern Shores Police Dept., describing him as a “street-smart cop” with good instincts.
In his introduction of Officer Varon, Chief Kole noted that she “put a lot of cadets [in basic training] to shame.”
Officer Varon lives in Kill Devil Hills.
Many of you already may know Deputy Chief Jones, who goes by Kelly, as a neighbor. He has lived in Southern Shores for 10 years and just retired from the U.S. Marshall’s Service after 23 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and worked 30 years ago for the Nags Head Police Dept. His law enforcement experience is extensive.
We are lucky to have Deputy Chief Kelly Jones join the SSPD. One of his sons, according to the Chief, is assisting the department this summer with issuing non-traffic stop citations.
With Officer Varon and Deputy Chief Jones joining the department, “we are close to having a full staff,” Town Manager Cliff Ogburn said.
ALSO AT THE MEETING, JIMMY PIERCE, who said he has been a Southern Shores resident for 20 years, introduced himself in public comments as a prospective candidate in 2026 for Dare County Sheriff.
Longtime Dare County Sheriff J.D. “Doug” Doughtie has announced that he will retire at the end of his current term, on Dec. 7, 2026.
A NOTE TO BEACON READERS ABOUT BEACH NOURISHMENT:
August is an exceptionally busy month for us, and we are unable to be as timely in our reporting of Southern Shores news, as we would like. We do plan, however, to bring you up to date as soon as possible on the action taken, and the information presented, on beach nourishment in the Town Council’s Aug. 5 meeting.
Ken Willson, of Coastal Protection Engineering (CPE) advised the Town Council last Tuesday that it can make a decision about participating in a proposed 2027 beach nourishment project as late as May-June 2026. If history is any indication, the Council will delay until then.
In the meantime, the Council is maintaining the Town’s “eligibility” for the project—i.e., keeping its options open—by committing funds for the payment of design and permitting tasks that must be done now. So far, that commitment is about $134,000.
CPE manages beach nourishment for Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil Hills, which cooperated in a project in 2022-23 in order to lower costs.
Southern Shores has always had a more stable shoreline than the other towns and was the last of the towns from Duck in the north to Nags Head in the south to add sand to its entire shoreline. (The area in Southern Shores near the Kitty Hawk Pier has long been characterized by high erosion. The beach at Pelican Watch was nourished in 2017 at the same time that Kitty Hawk had a project.)
The shoreline and sand volume statistics that Mr. Willson presented last week to show changes since the 2022-23 beach nourishment project were very encouraging.
“We have more sand on the beach today,” the consultant said, “than we did at the completion” of the 2022-23 project.
The report given by Mr. Willson, which included some beach-monitoring data collected by CPE in June, suggests that the Town could skip a five-year beach-maintenance cycle and not schedule another project until 2032.
CPE measures shoreline and sand volume changes each June at profiles sited every 1,000 feet on the Southern Shores coast. Mr. Willson did not present the numbers for each profile location; he just gave average measurements for the northern, central and southern sections of the beach.
The northern section is from 4th Avenue to the Duck town limit; the central section is from 4th Avenue south to about the Chicahauk Trail beach access; and the southern section encompasses the remaining shoreline to the Kitty Hawk town line.
The problem is, if Southern Shores opts out of the 2027 project, the other three towns would have to pay one-third, rather than one-quarter, of the mobilization costs, which Mr. Willson said amount to $8 million.
We will resume our report on beach nourishment later.
By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, The Southern Shores Beacon, 8/10/25
The Southern Shores Beacon 