$10,000 reward after 5 people shot to death in home used for drug sales

A $10,000 reward is being offered as investigators try to track down the person who shot and killed five people on Oct. 25 in a Sampson County home used for illegal drug sales.

The victims were Alfonza Jeffers, 73, of Clinton; Dagoberto Lopez, 33, of Garland; Lamar Williams, 58, of Rose Hill; Hector Salazar Lopez, 39, of Garland; and Jamie Lynn Rowland, 47, of Clinton.

A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for information that leads to the arrest of the person responsible for the five deaths. Anyone with information should contact the Sampson County Sheriff’s Office at 910-592-4141.

Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said the five deaths were the result of a targeted shooting that was drug related.

There has been no arrest, but authorities said they have people on their radar.

"We've got some people of interest, we're going to do our dead level best to solve those homicides," Thornton said, adding that "the public has nothing to fear."

The five were shot to death Wednesday night in a house off Garland Highway in Clinton. A family member told WRAL News the house belonged to one of the victims, Alfonza Jeffers.

Wednesday's crime scene was one of four in Sampson County in less than 24 hours, which all together resulted in seven deaths.

A man who knew the five victims said he went inside the home to check on them – and discovered the five people inside had been shot and killed. He said he spoke to one of the victims around 11 p.m. and stopped by the home around 11:41 p.m., when he discovered the bodies and called 911.

The man said he walked in to find one man dead in a chair, another man dead on the floor and the three others in various rooms. No arrests had been made as of Thursday afternoon.

WRAL News spoke with one man who said his cousin in his late 70s was one of the victims.

"He was a good person," the man said. "That's all I know. He would walk down the road, pick up cans and stuff. I don't know why anyone would want to hurt him."

WRAL's Gilbert Baez spoke with Thornton, who said this home was a known drug house.

"They are various racial and ethnic backgrounds - white, Black and Hispanic," said Police Capt. Eric Pope, who gave a press conference with updates from the investigation.

Several family members have shown up who believe they may be connected to the victims. A woman on the scene says she believes a red truck parked in the driveway is her husband's truck and is afraid one of the victims inside may be her husband.

Pope says officers don't yet know the relationship of the five victims, nor the relationship between the 911 caller and the victims.

"This is an unusual scene to say the least," he said. "When things like this happen it shocks the conscience and gets everyone's attention."

A large police presence could be seen at the home, which was surrounded in yellow police tape, around 4 a.m. Deputies and SBI agents were on scene.

The sheriff said this year so far they've had eight homicides, compared to only three homicides in 2022 – meaning the number of homicides has nearly tripled within the past year.

An overwhelming four crime scenes yielded seven dead bodies in a 24-hour span between Wednesday and Thursday. Officials have not said any are connected.

Three additional crime scenes in Sampson County

• On Thursday at 1 a.m. a man was shot and killed by Clinton police after allegedly pointing a gun at officers.
• Later Thursday morning, a body was found at a mobile home on Leaf Lane in Sampson County.
• A shooting investigation is underway near Dunn before noon on Thursday. Limited details were available.

Anyone with information related to any shooting is asked to call the Sampson County Sheriff's Office at 910-592-4141.

Rising trend of mass murders in NC raises concerns

The five victims in the shooting inside the home off Garland Highway south of Clinton are among three dozen North Carolinians who have died in mass murders across the state in the last 10 years, data shows. Only Texas, California, Ohio, Illinois, Florida, and Georgia have had more mass murders in that time period.

WRAL Data Trackers analyzed data relating to mass murders between Jan. 1 and Oct. 26 for every year over the last decade. According to the Gun Violence Archives, there have been 32 mass murders so far this year. That’s less than one per week. Including the Maine mass shooting, the fact that two mass shootings happened in the country within 24 hours is rare.

A mass murder is when four or more victims - not including the shooter - are killed, as the FBI describes.

Only a small portion - 5% - of mass shootings are mass murders.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a mass shooting is when at least four victims - not including the shooter - are shot and they’re either injured or killed. So far this year, there have been 566 of those. That’s about two every single day in the country.