Charges against at least two of the seven people arrested in an April raid at an East Brewton tattoo shop have been dropped this week according to court records.

Darrell Lane was arrested during the raid at Murder Creek Ink on Forrest Avenue in East Brewton when officers worked to close a two-month investigation into illegal activity at the business.

At the time of his arrest in April, Lane was charged with possession of a controlled substance, attempting to elude and resisting arrest. Court records who the possession and attempt to elude charges were dropped against Lane in an Escambia County courtroom this week; however, the charge of resisting arrest was upheld.

William Deere, who was arrested in the same incident, has also seen charges against him dropped in connection with the case.

Originally Deere was charged with public intoxication. Those charges were dropped in East Brewton Municipal Court earlier this week.

Five other men still have pending charges against them as a result of their arrests on the night of the East Brewton raid.

Still facing charges are Lavarious V. Bell and Timothy Woods for public intoxication; Traboris L. Woods who was arrested on a warrant from Escambia County, Fla.; Chad Pierre-Louis charged with possession of a controlled substance – cocaine; and John Rudolph charged with possession of a controlled substance – cocaine.

Bell and Timothy Woods charges will be heard in East Brewton’s Municipal Court with Traboris Woods, Pierre-Louis and Rudolph expected to appear in Escambia County’s criminal court.

At the time of the raid, East Brewton Sgt. Clemente Brooks said the department was acting on tips provided by customers and visitors to the establishment.

“We had some people who were visiting the shop there to come back and tell us some of the things they had seen there,” Brooks said. “We began surveillance on the business with patrols and just staying alert to activity there. Once we had enough information concerning the activity there, we went in and made the arrests and shut the business down.”
East Brewton’s City Council voted to revoke the business license for Murder Creek Ink in an official meeting of the group following the raid and arrests.

East Brewton Mayor Terry Clark said at the time of the license revocation that it was the first step in keeping businesses like Murder Creek Ink out of East Brewton.

“We want business in East Brewton, but this isn’t the kind of business we want,” Clark said. “We need to make sure they don’t do business here anymore and keep these kinds of businesses from coming into our city.”

Council members voted unanimously to revoke the business license immediately.