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Five people shot in North Carolina, including two police officers Suspected gunman dead after shootout with police in North Carolina
(about 7 hours later)
Five people were shot in North Carolina on Saturday night, including two police officers who received non-life-threatening injuries. A shootout in a small North Carolina town sparked by a gunman’s alleged killing of a neighbor left the gunman dead and two police officers wounded, authorities said Sunday. A bystander was also hurt.
Gaston County EMS told the Gaston Gazette that two men were killed and two officers and another person received non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The injuries to the officers didn’t appear to be life-threatening, Gaston County assistant police chief Joseph Ramey said at a late-night news conference. A woman was also wounded in the incident, but she is expected to survive, Ramey said.
Gaston County police chief Bill Melton said that police were called to a community, about 22 miles west of Charlotte, at 9.18pm in regard to a shooting. He said it was not clear who shot whom. A number of officers rushed to the neighborhood around 9.30 pm Saturday after getting several 911 calls about a man shot to death and another man still in the area with a gun, the assistant chief said.
Gaston EMS took three people to area hospitals. The two officers, both men, were not identified. Neither were the two deceased. The suspected gunman was on a street corner armed with a pistol and a rifle and fired on officers. He was killed when several officers fired back, Ramey said.
Gaston County commissioners chairman Tracy Philbeck tweeted about the shooting on Saturday, saying: “Please keep our officers in your prayers.” The names of the officers and the people killed have not been released. Police said Sunday afternoon that they would not release any more information about the case until Monday morning.
Gaston County police are investigating the death of the neighbor, while the State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the police shooting. The officers involved have been put on administrative duty, authorities said.
A clerk at a nearby convenience store told the Gaston Gazette that she knew the two men killed and the woman wounded as regular customers. She said police swarmed the store and told people to stay inside, then she heard the gunfight.
“We heard about 10 to 15 rounds shot. It was wild, that’s for sure,” Moore told the newspaper. “Boom, boom, boom.”
Ramey said news of his officers being shot was tough to hear.
“It’s very disturbing when you have men and women that you’re close to and you appreciate the hard work they do day in and day out and you hear they’ve been shot,” he said.