5 found shot to death at southeast North Carolina home, sheriff says
CLINTON, N.C. (AP) — Five people were found fatally shot at a southeast North Carolina home early Thursday, according to the local sheriff.
Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said deputies were called to the home off Garland Highway outside Clinton shortly before 1 a.m. for a report of a homicide and found five people dead with gunshot wounds.
Investigators don’t have any information about a suspect and don’t know how the people who were killed knew each other, Thornton said in a news release.
Authorities received a 911 call from a person who spoke to one victim around 11 p.m. and then found the bodies when they stopped by the home, Capt. Eric Pope said in a news conference. The victims are four men and one woman who range in age from their mid-30s to 80s, he said.
“This is not normal for our community. It is not normal for any community,” Pope said. “It should shock the conscience.”
The sheriff's office did not respond with additional information, including if the homicides are being investigated as a mass killing, which the FBI defines as the shooting death of four or more people, excluding any shooters, within 24 hours.
The bodies were found hours after a shooting in Lewiston, Maine — the 36th mass killing in the U.S. this year.
