Joseph King
Introduction
Joseph King is a former Durham, North Carolina police corporal who was fired from the department after being charged in an off-duty crash that killed Apostle Justin Heath, a longtime pastor and former sheriff’s deputy. King, 52, had spent more than fifteen years with the Durham Police Department before the October 2026 collision on a Harnett County highway ended both a driver’s life and his own law enforcement career.
Background Information
King was a corporal assigned to the Durham Police Department’s Uniform Patrol Bureau, where he had been employed since July 2010. The crash that ended his employment happened while he was off duty, driving his own car in Harnett County, about forty miles from the city whose badge he wore.
The man who died was Justin Heath, 67, an apostle and longtime pastor from Mount Olive who had served as a Wayne County sheriff’s deputy from 1983 to 1994. On the night of the crash, Heath had preached a revival service at Freedom Life Church in Angier — a sermon his son-in-law Chad Smith said centered on the biblical story of Lazarus — and was driving congregants home when the collision occurred.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged in a fatal crash; fired from the police department. King faces a misdemeanor death by motor vehicle charge. The charge is an accusation, and the criminal case remains pending.
According to investigators, King was driving a Honda passenger car when he ran a red light at the intersection of N.C. Highway 210 and Old Stage Road — on the Johnston County/Harnett County line — and struck the church van Heath was driving on the night of Saturday, October 17, 2026. Deputies with the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office found the church van overturned off the roadway with multiple people trapped inside.
Heath was pronounced dead in the crash. The other passengers in the van were removed from the vehicle and taken to WakeMed in Raleigh with injuries of varying severity. King was charged on October 19 with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, two days after the collision.
Public Reaction and Consequences
Durham Police Chief Stephanie Mardis released a statement after the crash expressing condolences to Heath’s family and friends and to those injured, and said the North Carolina State Highway Patrol was leading the investigation while her department conducted its own internal review. She identified King as a corporal in the Uniform Patrol Bureau employed since July 2010, and said Durham officers are held to “the highest standards of conduct” and that any actions violating the law or the public’s trust would be addressed in accordance with department policies and applicable law.
That internal review ended with his dismissal. The Durham Police Department terminated King effective Wednesday, November 4, 2026, weeks after the crash and while the criminal charge was pending. The termination announcement came from the department itself, closing his employment at the same time the Highway Patrol’s case moved forward.
Current Status
King is a former Durham police officer, terminated effective November 4, 2026, and facing a misdemeanor death by motor vehicle charge in Harnett County from the October 17 crash. The criminal case remains pending, and no trial outcome has been reported. Heath’s death closed a revival night that had begun with what his family describes as a sermon about heaven, and left congregants recovering from injuries across a Raleigh trauma center.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A fifteen-year police career ended not in a courtroom but in a department termination notice three weeks after the crash. The officer-becomes-defendant arc is the defining consequence: the same department that assigned King to its Uniform Patrol Bureau processed his dismissal while its chief publicly balanced condolences to the victim’s family against the department’s own accountability language. For Heath’s congregation and family, the case’s outcome matters less than the loss; for King, the pending misdemeanor charge now attaches to a resume that no longer includes a badge.