North Carolina gunman shoots 4, is wounded by police

DURHAM, N.C. -- A man with a pistol-grip shotgun shot and wounded four people near a law firm and outside a Walmart in Greenville, N.C., late Friday morning, according to Greenville police.

The gunman was shot and wounded by police officers at the scene and taken into custody, Greenville Police Chief Hassan Aden said a news conference.

The shooter was shot several times, Aden said, and carried “a significant amount of ammunition -- enough to really do some significant damage.”

Police provided no motive for the shootings, which began when an insurance adjuster was shot as he sat in his car outside a law firm at about 11:45 a.m. The gunman walked across a busy highway to a Wal-Mart, where three more people were shot outside the store.

Police pursued the gunman behind a Toys R Us store, Aden said, adding that the suspected gunman and the four victims were undergoing surgery Friday afternoon.

[Updated, 4:06 p.m. PDT June 21: Sgt. Joe D. Friday, a spokesman for the Greenville Police Department, said the shooter ignored police demands to drop the shotgun.

“He pointed and fired his weapons at police officers, who returned fire and disabled him,” Friday said.

“Even after he was shot, the suspect refused to comply with commands to surrender.”

Friday said the names of the suspect and the four victims will be released “as the investigation progresses.”

Beth Atkins, a spokeswoman for Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, where the suspect and victims underwent surgery, said family members requested that no information be released about the shooting victims.]

Witnesses quoted by local reporters said the shooter was wearing some type of body armor, but Aden said he could not confirm that.

It was among the worst shootings in the history of Greenville, population 86,000, a county seat that is home to East Carolina University. “I don’t know that we’ve ever had anything like that here,” Aden said.

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