Five people were shot and killed in a house in southeast North Carolina early Thursday. The local sheriff, Jimmy Thornton, shared the news and said that police were called to the house just outside Clinton, off Garland Highway, before 1 a.m. They received a report of a murder and found five people dead from gunshot wounds.
The investigators are trying to figure out who the suspect might be and how the victims were connected to each other. Someone called 911 after speaking to one of the victims at around 11 p.m. That person went to the house and found the dead bodies.
The victims were four men and one woman, and their ages ranged from their mid-30s to their 80s, as mentioned by Captain Eric Pope during a news conference.
"Anytime you have a murder in it of itself, it is a shock to the conscience, but when you have five victims..." Pope told WRAL at the scene. "This is not normal for this community. It's not normal for any community. It should shock the conscience."
The statement mentioned that the likely reason for their deaths seems to be the gunshot wounds, but the exact cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner.
Additionally, the police made it clear that they don't think this case is connected to another homicide case reported to the Clinton police on Thursday morning, and it's also unrelated to an ongoing investigation into a shooting involving an officer in Clinton. The identity of people murdered or any other clue regarding the murder has not yet been disclosed to the media.
