Army Staff Sgt. Brandon Allen Amos-Dixon, 25, was charged Friday, March 17, 2023, with first-degree murder in the killing of Army Staff Sgt. Jimmy Lee Smith III, according to local law enforcement officials. Both soldiers were assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C. (Hoke County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office)
A Fort Bragg soldier has been charged with murder in the Jan. 18 shooting death of another soldier stationed at the North Carolina Army post, local law enforcement officials said Monday.
The Hoke County Sheriff’s Office filed first-degree murder charges against Army Staff Sgt. Brandon Allen Amos-Dixon on Friday, accusing him in the killing of Staff Sgt. Jimmy Lee Smith III in Raeford, about 30 miles southwest of Fort Bragg, according to a news release.
Amos-Dixon, 25, already was in police custody in Virginia where he has been held since Jan. 19 without bond on multiple charges, including the attempted killings of his fiancé and her child, after a high-speed police chase that began in North Carolina.
Smith, a 24-year-old culinary specialist assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group, was found dead of a gunshot wound at about 10:30 p.m. on Hammock Lane in Raeford, law enforcement officials said. Less than two hours before Smith’s death, Amos-Dixon shot into a car in which his fiancé, Chelsea Ling Chung, and her child were seated, near a home in Spring Lake, about 20 miles from Raeford, police said.
Chung and the child sustained injuries in the shooting that were not life-threatening, Harnett County Sheriff's Office officials said in January.
On Jan. 19, police accused Amos-Dixon of leading officers on a high-speed pursuit, which ended in Bastian, Va., some 215 miles from where it began in Spring Lake, N.C. Virginia Highway Patrol officers arrested Amos-Dixon after the chase. In addition to the new murder charge and two counts of attempted murder, the soldier faces other counts including felony reckless driving, assault on a law enforcement officer and misdemeanor reckless driving charges, according to court records.
Fort Bragg officials said Amos-Dixon also is a culinary specialist. He was assigned to the U.S. Special Operations Command.
The Hoke County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that it would seek Amos-Dixon’s extradition from Virginia to face the murder charge in North Carolina. Court records show he was expected to next appear in court in Virginia on April 5.
