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Deadly feud: Gunman dead, 4 others shot in dispute over dog in Caldwell County
Two sheriff’s deputies, 8-year-old among injured
Richard Gould
Tony Moore’s wheelchair sits by the road after a shooting in Caldwell County sent him and three others to hospitals. Neighbors say a feud between neighbors festered for 18 months before escalating into a fatal shootout late Wednesday.
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Published: May 29, 2009
LENOIR - Two Caldwell County sheriff's deputies were shot, along with a father and his 8-year-old daughter, when a feud between neighbors erupted into deadly shootout Wednesday night.
Deputy Tom McManus was treated at Caldwell Memorial Hospital and released Thursday morning.
Deputy Marty Robins was transported to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte and was listed in fair condition Thursday.
Tony Moore was taken to Carolinas Medical Center and his daughter, Ashley, was transported to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.
No one from the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office was available for comment Thursday about the shootings. The sheriff's office provided a press release.
"Tony and Ashley are in stable condition," Moore's mother-in-law, Pat Jones, said Thursday.
The sheriff's office got a call for a deputy at about 11 p.m. Wednesday from a home in the Kings Creek community, about 10 miles northeast of Lenoir, according to a press release from the sheriff's department. The call was from Tony Moore about an ongoing neighbor dispute over an animal complaint.
On Thursday, Tammie Roberts looked at her neighbors' houses about 100 yards away and said a feud between her neighbors, Roland E. Younce, 63, and Tony L. Moore, 44, had been going on for 18 months. It stemmed from an incident when Younce's pit bull bit Moore's daughters in January 2008.
The girls were 6 and 7 years old at the time, and Moore sued Younce for $1,910 for medical bills, according to court records.
"They said it was Younce's fault, but the judge didn't see it that way and it just escalated from there," Jones said.
Moore lost the lawsuit, but bitterness grew between the neighbors and escalated into more lawsuits and arrests, according to neighbors.
Neighbors said they saw Younce's dog roaming through the working-class neighborhood nestled in rolling hills Wednesday night and worried it might provoke another violent outburst between Younce and Moore.
Roberts said she heard a single gunshot at about 10:30 p.m.
Jones said Moore shot the dog when it got on his porch, called the sheriff's office and went outside to wait for the deputies. His two daughters went with him and that's when Younce walked into the yard with his shotgun and started shooting.
Jones said her granddaughter told her when Moore saw Younce coming with his gun, he shouted at the girls to run and turned his wheelchair to go inside.
"Roland shot Tony and his 8-year-old daughter," Roberts said. "Roland used a shotgun with buckshot."
Tony was hit by six pieces of shot about the size of a pencil eraser, Jones said. He was hit in the shoulder, back and hip.
Ashley was shot in the back.
"It grazed her kidney and she has a breathing tube — she can't breathe," Jones said.
When the first deputy arrived on the scene at 3988 Grandin Road, he was shot from an unknown direction as he approached Moore's house, according to the press release.
A second deputy arrived and was shot while carrying the wounded officer to safety. Two more officers returned fire in the direction of the shooter.
The suspect was still in the area and a team of three other officers attempted to get Moore and his children out of the residence, according to the press release.
"When they started blasting, it sounded like a war," said John Stallings, who was at Roberts' home when the violence erupted.
As additional officers arrived on the scene and set up a perimeter, and a SWAT team managed to evacuated Moore and his children to get them to the hospital, according to the release.
They brought him to the street in his wheelchair, Roberts said.
Jones said Moore lost his leg after a motorcycle accident seven years ago.
"It was a hit and run," she said.
After the deputies exchanged fire with Younce, SWAT teams searched the area for him.
Roberts said they found Younce dead beside the fence he had recently installed to keep his dog in his yard.
She said officers told her he was shot by deputies, who returned fire after he ambushed them.
"When Younce fired at the deputies I knew he wasn't coming out alive," Roberts said.
The State Bureau of Investigations is investigating the incident because officers were involved in the shooting.
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