VIDEO: 2 Officers Wounded, Murder Suspect Killed in North Carolina Shootout
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is assisting Gaston County, N.C., authorities following a deadly weekend shootout that wounded two officers, killed a suspect, and led to the discovery of a separate but related homicide.
The Gaston County Police Department’s 911 center received a call from a home on Balsam Court Saturday night and the caller said a man had shot his dad and was still inside the home, according to police.
Officers responded to Merrywood Lane and Greenwood Drive around 9:15 p.m. as more reports came in of an active shooter in the neighborhood, WSOC TV reports.
When law enforcement arrived, they were confronted outside by Jeffrey Clyde Wilkes holding a shotgun and wearing a pistol, according to investigators. Wilkes opened fire and wounded two police officers, Gaston County Assistant Police Chief Joseph Ramey said.
As many as seven officers returned fire and Wilkes was shot and killed, according to Ramey. Officials said Wilkes lived at Greenwood Drive, Gastonia.
A short time later, police found the 911 caller's father, Charles Dean Thompson, a retired Gaston County Police Officer, dead inside the home on Balsam Court and a woman shot and injured in another nearby house.
Investigators believe Wilkes, the gunman killed by police, had shot and killed Thompson prior to the officers' arrival.
One of the wounded officers was released from the hospital Sunday. The other officer had surgery Sunday and remains in the hospital.
