UPDATE: Florida murder suspect arrested in Pitt County facing federal indictment

PITT COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - We’re learning more about a child murder suspect charges from Florida who was arrested in the east earlier this year following a standoff.

The Pitt County Sheriff’s Office said that Claude Brooks, 35, of Tampa, was originally arrested back on February 22.

On that date, deputies went to Highway 903 between Ayden and Winterville. They had received a report of a man hanging out of the window of a car and shooting a gun toward a home and a field in the direction of a district court judge’s home.

Deputies said they pulled Brooks over, and he gave them the Arizona driver’s license of someone already booked in the Pitt County Jail.

Deputies said they had concerns at the time that Brooks was not who he said he was. When meeting with the magistrate, deputies said they explained their concern and asked that he not be released until his identity could be confirmed.

Deputies said the magistrate granted a $100,000 secured bond and that 2 ½ hours later a bondsman paid the man’s bond and he was released.

The man failed to appear for his first appearance and deputies finally received confirmation from fingerprint analysis that he was Brooks and wanted for the 2019 murder of a child in Florida.

Brooks was arrested the following Monday by deputies after they worked with the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service.

Brooks was booked on the original charges as well as an additional charge of identity theft.

As of September 18th, Brooks is facing six federal charges. They include two counts of possession with intent to sell/ deliver, two counts of possessing a firearm as a felon, and two counts of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

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