The shooting happened Tuesday on Boykin Road, which is a rural road in a residential area near Beulah Road and US-701 just south of Clinton.
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Crime scene tape roped off a wooded area beside a home off a dirt road. ABC11 crews at the scene saw investigators mark off more than 80 shell casings and collect them as evidence.
"We just live in a violent time, and I think this is something that didn't pertain to the people in the community," said Sampson County Sheriff Jimmy Thornton. "There may have been some reason, a motive to bring them here for that to take place."
Joanne Murphy, who lives across the street from where the gunfire happened, said she saw two cars idling in the neighborhood then suddenly the shooting began.
"The guy was shooting out already ... don't know who he was shooting at, but shooting at the guy like, what are they doing," Murphy said. "Then I could see fire coming from the gun."
Murphy said she didn't know what kind of gun it was but "it shot a lot of times."
Murphy said she then saw a gun tossed from a car.
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"All of a sudden, the guy who was in the black car threw a gun out of the black car," Murphy said. "What if somebody was out there at the mailbox or could've been me out there at the mailbox when they started shooting? It was just crazy today ... should've stayed in my house today."
The Sampson County Sheriff's Office confirmed the four people who were shot drove themselves to Sampson Regional Medical Center. Though one person died from their injuries, the other three were stabilized and were expected to recover.
The hospital went on lockdown at 1:30 p.m. while law enforcement investigated what happened.
"You're not expecting this kind of thing to happen...you see it on TV or in the movies...not right in your neighborhood," Murphy said.
Another area resident, Katherine Fields, said she and her husband were at work when their surveillance camera alerted them that something was going on.
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"I don't know what happened, but we'd like to pray for everyone involved," said Fields, who has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years.
Her front yard became part of the crime team as detectives walked about, searching for evidence.
"We're kind of like, go to work, come back people, we just, we know a few people around here," Fields said. "I just want everybody to be safe."
The sheriff's office said it is too early in the investigation to say what led up to the shooting.