A North Carolina probation and parole officer assigned to watch over Patrick Tracy Burris apparently had concerns about him since he was released from a Lincoln County prison April 29 and took action to do something about him.

When Burris, 41, was released from incarceration on a 2001 sentence, he still was subject to serve nine months of post-release supervision, according to George Dudley, a spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Corrections.

While Burris showed up for four meetings with his probation and parole officer, he had missed an 8 p.m. curfew on five separate occasions and been cited for driving with a revoked license in a county he didn't have permission to visit.

On June 4, his probation and parole officer took action and started the process to put Burris back in jail, Dudley said.

She witnessed him driving June 12 and notified police, having him arrested. He got out on bond, however, before an arrest warrant for prison release violations became official later that afternoon.

Burris was a wanted man from that point forward.

Numerous South Carolina officials contend jail is where Burris belonged to begin with, and that if he had been in jail, Cherokee County would still have five area residents.

Local officials say Burris who was killed in a Monday morning shootout with Gaston County police officers, was responsible for five Cherokee County murders between June 27 and July 2.

Dudley maintained the North Carolina Department of Corrections did everything it was supposed to do.

"There was no indication he was a violent and assaultive person when we had him," he said.

And he maintained that the probation officer was doing everything "even above and beyond" to supervise him. "It was just a little over a month (after his release from incarceration) she had him on her supervision and she decided it was time to do something about him," he said of the probation and parole officer.

Little by little, new details emerged throughout the past week as news agencies across the Carolinas began digging to find out more about the man accused of the Cherokee County murders.

Standing 6 feet, 7 inches tall, and weighing anywhere from 270 to 285 pounds, Burris went by nicknames like "Big Country," "Big Foot" and "Big One."

He had spent the better part of the past two decades bouncing around inside the North Carolina correctional system and had a criminal record in at least three other states, including West Virginia, Maryland and Florida, police said.

He apparently was handy, and one source indicated he even spent some time on a work release assignment from prison working at a North Carolina Highway Patrol maintenance shop.

Some, like a Lincoln County official, said those who had contact with him recalled him as "friendly and nice."

Several media outlets even reported that Burris was engaged to be married to a North Carolina woman. Some media outlets talked with the woman's son about his future father-in-law, though The Gaffney Ledger could not reach him for immediate comment.

Another caller to The Gaffney Ledger, who wished to remain anonymous, wasn't shocked by the past week's revelations, however. The caller, who had contact with Burris while he was at another prison, recalled how he had been sent to another prison following some rules infractions while he was on work release in Gaston County.

"They don't move you for no reason," the caller said.

Seventh Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy was among numerous officials who believe the criminal justice system failed in Burris' case.

"If you look at it, they (North Carolina) tried probation," he said. "They tried intensive probation. They tried substance abuse counseling. They tried parole. They tried prison. None of it worked. At a certain point, when you have a rap sheet as long as he does, and you've tried alternatives to incarceration, they need to be separated from society permanently."

At a minimum, Gowdy said, such individuals should serve the maximum allowable sentence, which in Burris' case would have kept him in jail for more than two more years.

Gowdy didn't say, however, that South Carolina's system is better. He rattled off numerous cases in which people have been released from South Carolina prisons only to commit more crimes. It simply means big changes are needed across the board, he believes.

"If we're not motivat- ed by five murders in the course of a week, I don't know what motivation would be sufficient to look at a systematic overhaul of our criminal justice system."

Dudley, from the North Carolina Department of Corrections, said records showed Burris was sentenced on property crimes in 2001 to a minimum of seven years and nine months to a maximum of 10 years and one month.

Under North Carolina's structured sentencing system, Burris could get credit for the time he served in prison prior to conviction, and also for good behavior. None of those credits, however, would allow for release before the minimum sentence.

Burris, Dudley said, was considered an "average Joe inmate who had earned the right to get out, by law, after seven years and 10 months of incarceration."

When Gaston County police officers responded to a burglary in progress call and found Burris inside a home with a brother and sister, they attempted to take him into custody after learning of the arrest warrant issued by the North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission.

Burris pulled a gun — the same one that would be linked to all five Cherokee County murders — and fired at the officers, striking one in the leg. The officers returned fire, killing Burris.

Tips about the Cherokee County killings, and Burris, still are coming in to the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Bill Blanton said.

Investigators still are waiting for test results on numerous pieces of evidence and Blanton had no additional information he could offer on Thursday.

"I know they (the crime labs) are working hard," he said.

Blanton, who was among the many law enforcement officers to attend the Wednesday afternoon funerals of Stephen Tyler and his daughter Abby, the fourth and fifth victims of the killing spree, said many answers may never be known.