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State NAACP Wants Full Investigation Into Mall Shooting Death

Rev. Paul Robeson Ford leads a unity prayer during a vigil for slain Winston-Salem resident Julius "Juice" Sampson Wednesday. PAUL GARBER/WFDD

The North Carolina NAACP is calling for a full investigation into the shooting death of a man outside a restaurant in Winston-Salem. 

32-year-old Julius Sampson, who is black, was killed outside BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse Tuesday afternoon.

The alleged shooter, Robert Anthony Granato, is white.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports NAACP officials want police to determine whether the incident was racially motivated.

There are reports that racial epithets were used by both men during an argument leading up to the shooting.

But Police Chief Catrina Thompson said that an investigation has not yet uncovered any evidence that the crime was motivated by race.

The Reverend Anthony T. Spearman, the president of the state NAACP, says Granato's Instagram account includes images of him with guns that are “dangerous and something very disturbing.” 

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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