Human Interest
A runner jogs across the entranceway to the Wrightsville Beach Town Hall, where Sheri Chisholm was hit by an unmarked police vehicle earlier this summer. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — When Sheri Chisholm was hit by a Wrightsville Beach Police SUV as she walked along a crosswalk in front of Town Hall, she didn’t expect to be the one blamed for the incident.
Read MoreWILMINGTON — “That was something not many people get a chance to see.” Mark Winneberger was one of the first people to dive down to North Carolina’s newest artificial reef — a retired Coast Guard cutter, rechristened The Brian Davis, sunk 21 miles off the coast of Wrightsville Beach on Friday.
Read More![Greg Casaletto inside one of the freezers at the Food Bank’s distribution facility in Wilmington. “Before [the Covid-19 pandemic], we’d get 800 pounds of meat from grocery stores [per day]. After this started, we get maybe 250 to 300 pounds, some da…](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a72319251a5843d6a1d9a9b/1602129174073-5UJP8C51I86VFJXT99T3/MFD_7468.jpg)
Greg Casaletto inside one of the freezers at the Food Bank’s distribution facility in Wilmington. “Before [the Covid-19 pandemic], we’d get 800 pounds of meat from grocery stores [per day]. After this started, we get maybe 250 to 300 pounds, some days 40 to 50 pounds,” Casaletto said. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Since the pandemic forced massive economic shutdowns in March, leaders of more than 40 food assistance agencies have held weekly internet conference meetings to address the rising demand among the groups they serve, and others who are seeking food assistance for the first time in their lives.
On April 29, 10 days after a missing persons report was filed, WPD Captain Thomas Tilmon announces efforts to find two missing Wilmington women. Asked why parents were first notified only four days before, Tilmon said the “normal bureaucratic process” for filing a report into the system may have been delayed by Covid-19 work restrictions. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — The Wilmington Police Department has publicly defended how it handled the missing persons case of two Wilmington women — a defense that is at odds with family members, close friends, and roommates of the victims who have sharply criticized the investigation.
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Monica Shepard, wearing all black at right, talks to neighbors as Pender County Sheriff’s deputies’ vehicles are parked behind them. (Port City Daily photo/Courtesy Kelly Estes)
PENDER COUNTY — Neighbors of an 18-year-old Laney High student who opened his family’s door to an armed “vigilante group” in the Avendale neighborhood of southern Pender County last week captured security footage and photos of the scene, confirming key elements of the story later recalled by neighbors and the family itself.
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Lauren Henderson, a friend of Stephanie Mayorga, lays flowers at a tree where it appears the car struck before resting in a swampy marsh ten feet away. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Wilmington Police, EMS, and Fire crews were on the scene of a reported high-speed car accident for approximately eight minutes before giving up on a search of a crashed vehicle, according to 911 records.
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Gerald Williams rides the back of a city trash truck while emptying bins in the Pine Valley neighborhood Thursday morning. He implored residents to wear gloves or wipe the bins down and wash their hands after taking in their trash bins to avoid cross-contamination. “Because I touch about 800 to 1,000 trash cans a day,” he said. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Robert “Bobby” Way has been driving the streets of Wilmington for 23 years as a city worker, so when things change around town — as they have since Governor Roy Cooper passed into law a statewide stay-at-home order in mid-March — he is a keen observer.
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Portraits of Wilmington residents wearing homemade cloth masks, ski masks, bandanas, N-95 respirators, and surgical masks. (Port City Daily photos)
WILMINGTON — Over the past few weeks, more and more shoppers have been wearing face masks at grocery stores, gas stations, and home improvement stores across Wilmington. Some cited the official recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to wear cloth face masks, freeing up the supply of surgical masks and N-95 respirators for health care workers on the front line of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The past few days, Port City Daily has interviewed residents of Wilmington to better understand how the spread of the coronavirus is impacting their daily lives. Click here to see the full story. (Port City Daily photos/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — As the city addresses a rising economic and health crisis caused by the spread of novel coronavirus cases across the U.S. and North Carolina, every aspect of daily life has been affected.
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A DJI Matrice 210 drone at the Pender Emergency Operation Center, identical to the one lost during a training exercise last week. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — During a joint training exercise near Masonboro Inlet last week, Pender EMS and Fire lost a $26,000 drone to the ocean when it ran out of battery power while fighting high winds nearly a mile offshore.
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A Marine helicopter passes over a section of the Surf City beach where a resident had complained of a “military mob.” (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
SURF CITY — Newly released documents from Surf City reveal what happened when what one resident called a ‘military mob’ took over a section of the beach last summer. They also show some evidence of the town’s attempt to handle the incidents quietly, along with a police crackdown on the issue.
One of two wing engines of the Ford Tri-Motor as it flies over Southport. The third is installed at the nose of the plane. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
OAK ISLAND — The first all-metal commercial passenger plane is parked at the Cape Fear Regional Jetport this weekend offering flights for anyone who wants a ride on the former “Air Force One” of the Dominican Republic.
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Horror film character Michael Myers stands on the sidewalk of Pender Avenue during a scene shot in the Carolina Place neighborhood near Wallace Park last weekend. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Weeks ago residents of Carolina Place received notice that a 100-member production crew would be shooting a few scenes for a film entitled “MOB Rules” in the area.
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A collection of 1970s and 1980s board and card games, from Panzer Blitz on the left to G.I. Anvil of Victory on the right, is valued at $260. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — A local game store has been awarded consignment rights to a collection of rare and antique games, valued at more than $1 million, from the Washington estate of a former Stanford University and Microsoft engineer.
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Coast Guard Machinery Technician Third Class David Patnaude on board a 45-foot response boat as it returned to the Wrightsville Beach station after the crew checked all navigation buoys on the Cape Fear River. Each was in their proper position, and the call was made to begin re-opening the Port of Wilmington. (Port City Daily/Mark Darrough)
As the Wilmington area awoke to minimal damages from Hurricane Dorian, one Coast Guard Crew took to the Cape Fear River to make sure all navigation buoys were in their proper positions before re-opening the Port of Wilmington.
Read MoreWILMINGTON — A mile south of downtown Wilmington there’s an on old dive bar where — even if the air conditioning isn’t working on a Tuesday night — musicians take the stage for an open blues jam.
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Sideboard owner Heath Newton, left, and general manager Chris Wallace. (Port City Daily photo/Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — Before the gaming industry was taken over by computers, game consoles, and smartphones, there was a time when families would gather around Monopoly boards and roll dice, trade, fight, and extort each another.
Read MoreWILMINGTON — In the middle of the darkness that has come over downtown Wilmington in recent days, an old, seasoned bar owner with a thick Belarusian accent kicked on the generator, lit the candles, and opened his doors to those who had ridden out the storm.
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Chris Graham, left, and his father Larry load sheets of plywood at a Lowe's Home Improvement store in Porters Neck on Monday, September 10. "The older folks need to go," Chris said. (Port City Daily photo | Mark Darrough)
WILMINGTON — As Hurricane Florence intensified and continued its course toward the southeastern U.S. coast on Monday, residents of Wilmington were doing everything they could to prepare for an expected life-threatening coastal storm surge and flooding.
Read MoreWILMINGTON — This week’s photo series takes you right into the heart of Philadelphia Eagles country at the famous Copper Penny bar in downtown Wilmington.
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