WILMINGTON - A deputy mistook the hammering of a battering ram for the blast of a gun, then fired the shots that killed Peyton Strickland, a prosecutor said in court Monday.

Three days after the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office fired Christopher Long, 34, a grand jury indicted him on a charge of second-degree murder.

About 9:30 p.m. Dec. 1, Long was part of a heavily armed unit of deputies who knocked on the door of the house Strickland and two roommates rented at 533 Long Leaf Acres Drive in Wilmington.

Strickland, a Cape Fear Community College student from Durham who was suspected of robbery, went to the foyer, said District Attorney Ben David. Strickland re-entered the living room, where the young men were playing a video game like the stolen one the officers were seeking, David said.

Another deputy, peering at Strickland through three small windows in the door, took that as a sign that the 18-year-old was refusing to answer. The deputy then banged a battering ram against the door. David said Long, a veteran of 10 years, mistook the noise for a shot. Long fired three times through the door, David said.

Two bullets struck Strickland in the head and chest. He died in a hospital.

Two deputies who had been placed on paid leave -- Larry Robinson and Greg Johnson -- have been cleared of criminal wrongdoing, David said. They had fired their weapons with Long and killed Strickland's German shepherd, Blaze.

The grand jury's decision to indict Long brought some comfort to Strickland's family.

"This indictment is an important first step in holding accountable everyone responsible for Peyton's death, but it is only a first step," his father, Raleigh lawyer Donald Strickland, said in a prepared statement. "Still to be held accountable are those who put a SWAT team at the door of an 18-year-old college student who was unarmed."

Neither the Sheriff's Office nor UNC-Wilmington campus police, who had called in the office's Emergency Response Team, would say how many officers were involved in the search, nor would they name them.

Grim court scene

On Monday, Long, a graying, stocky father of two, stood before a judge and practically whispered the words "yes sir" as the judge asked him whether he understood the charge. Long stared straight ahead as David told the judge that Long's actions were reckless and that use of his weapon wasn't justified.

"No one else thought they were under attack," David said.

David would not release a State Bureau of Investigation report on the incident and vowed not to speak about the case outside the courtroom.

Long waited all day in the New Hanover Courthouse, his attorney, J. Michael McGuinness, said Monday. But the district attorney and the judge denied him the chance to tell the grand jury his side, McGuinness said.

In court, a cluster of uniformed deputies stood stone-faced near the judge's bench, staring blankly at their former colleague.

Strickland's aunt, Amy Reed of Wilmington, squirmed in the bench behind several of Long's relatives.

Long, a New Hanover County native with a web of family in this coastal county, has taught law enforcement classes at Cape Fear Community College, McGuinness said. He was earning $43,323 a year as a full-time member of sheriff's Emergency Response Team, a unit that he has helped lead, McGuinness said.

Last week, Long moved his family from their home in a new subdivision outside town after receiving threats on his life, McGuinness said. Long posted a $50,000 secured bond Monday evening.

Sheriff Sid Causey, who fired Long on Friday, said Monday that Long previously had been a "model deputy." He said that other deputies will raise money for him and his family for the holidays.

In 2001, Long shot and injured two teenagers who he said were trying to run over him with their car. He was never charged in that case.

Unusual case

The State Bureau of Investigation has looked into 115 shootings involving law enforcement since 2003, including the latest incident. About 40 percent were fatal, according to the SBI.

It is unusual, though, for an officer to be charged for such a shooting. McGuinness, who specializes in representing law officers, said he has handled a few criminal cases involving officer shootings in recent years.

UNCW campus police were expecting a high-risk situation Dec. 1 when they went to search for one of two stolen PlayStation 3 video consoles taken from Justin Raines, a UNCW student from Apex.

An anonymous caller had pinned the robbery and assault on Strickland, roommate Braden Riley of Apex and another friend, Ryan David Mills of Durham.

"The original crime was a violent offense," UNCW police Chief David Donaldson said Monday. He said his officers found a loaded shotgun in Mills' car the night he was arrested.

Campus police had spotted an Internet photo of Mills, 20, holding weapons with two other men, and they feared on Dec. 1 that Strickland and his friends could be armed and dangerous, according to a search warrant.

Strickland was not armed. The deputies found no guns in the home.

(Staff writer Matthew Eisley and news researcher Susan Ebbs contributed to this report.)

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