A North Carolina man accused in a series of shootings that left three people dead was arrested after the son of the two victims – an elderly couple shot to death in their home – held him at gunpoint until the authorities arrived, a sheriff said Monday.
“There would have been additional victims if a family member of the victims had not intervened,” Pitt County Sheriff Paula Dance told reporters.
A search warrant revealed that the suspect, David Lever, 55, had at least 50 firearms in his home, Dance said.
Many more weapons were discovered in the van that Lever allegedly drove Friday around Greenville, southeast of Raleigh, opening fire at four scenes, Dance said.
The sheriff’s office identified the victims as Anthony Gribble, 80; Paula Gribble, 76; and Enrique Reyes, 64 years old.
Lever is expected to be charged with three counts of murder, the sheriff’s office said. During an initial court appearance Monday, Lever used an expletive to describe the district judge assigned to his case: NBC affiliate WITN in Greenville reported.
He was held without bail and appointed a public defender, the station reported.
A possible motive remains unclear, Dance said, and authorities are investigating possible ties between Lever and the victims.
Reyes is believed to have been fatally shot first, Dance said. He was found dead at his home after a 911 caller reported seeing a man lying in a driveway in west Greenville at 3:35 p.m., Dance said.
WITN identified Reyes as a retired university biology professor.
Lever’s house was less than a half-mile from Reyes’, according to addresses provided by Dance. Reyes returned home from a grocery store shortly after shopping there at 1:20 p.m., about two hours before his body was found, and neighborhood cameras showed Lever walking back and forth from his own home to around the same time.
At 1:44 p.m., less than 20 minutes after Lever was recorded leaving his home, he drove away from a nearby gas station “firing shots from the van as he left” , Dance said, noting that the incident was caught on video.
No one was injured in this shooting.
Thirty-three minutes later — and less than 2½ miles away — the son of Anthony and Paula Gribble called authorities and reported that his parents had been fatally shot, Dance said.
The son said he was holding the shooter on behalf of authorities, Dance said. Lever was “quickly” taken into custody, she added.
At 2:50 p.m., officers responded to a fourth scene that investigators believe is related to Lever, Dance said. A house near Lever’s was reportedly hit by a bullet, Dance said; no one was home.
“We have reason to believe that he was also the perpetrator of this crime,” she said.
Lever’s next court hearing is scheduled for January 29.
