A 7 hour standoff with police ended with the gunman being shot. It all started around 4pm local time yesterday when a man, identified as Kevin Battaglia, fired shots at a deputy near McIver Road and Church Street in the town of Parkton, Robeson County.
A local resident, Mr Sam Ray, stated: "He came across the railroad track with the rifle draped across his shoulder with the gun hanging toward the ground."
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For a while everything was quiet with Mr Battaglia holed up in a house and the police hidden behind their vehicles. Then around 7pm, just as a SWAT team was arriving, another round of shots could be heard.
According to Robeson County Sheriff Ken Sealey, Mr Battaglia as from that point constantly fired at police officers.
Mr Sealey said every time his officers get close to the house, the man would shoot at them. Two deputy cars were shot as well as a trooper but a bullet proof vest stopped the bullet.
Candice Sweat, reporter for Wral said that there was clear tension during the standoff as police was being shot at from a higher location.
Police evacuated everyone in the street, including Ms Charlene Bugg: "I heard a lot of cop cars coming by and I thought maybe someone had a heart attack. I had to go pick up my son from work and when I looked down there, I saw cop cars down there. Like 30 or 40 had went by.”
A few hours later as the night started to fall, word of a man who had barricaded himself inside a house was spreading like wildfire.
Ms Bugg’s neighbor, Mr DaShawn McCullum commented: "They said we can't go into the neighborhood because they had it blocked off because somebody down there holding somebody hostage with an AR-15 and full body armor."
Around midnight the residents who had been evacuated and brought to a local shelter near City Hall were allowed to return to their homes.
Source:
http://www.wral.com/gunman-dead-after-shots-fired-at-robeson-county-deputy/16988369/
