Police were called to a home on East Maple Lane around 11 a.m. after a resident, who lives across the street from where the incident began, said he heard five or six gunshots and a scream.
At first neighbors said they thought it was more Fourth of July firecrackers.
"I thought it might have been fireworks," eyewitness Daryl Park said. "I heard like five or six pops."
"I heard 'pop, pop', but I thought it was kids with fireworks," neighbor Sandy Alicea said.
Alicea says she soon knew what happened in front of her neighbor's house two doors down, was not an Independence Day celebration.
"The police came," Alicea said. "There's shells on the road. Over by that lady's house there was blood. And they said somebody in the SUV was shot."
Shortly after authorities arrived, they evacuated residents' homes surrounding the house where the shooting happened.
Police soon learned that the victim was driven to a local fire station with a bullet in his leg and taken from there to the hospital.
The victim, whose injury is not life threatening, is 40-year-old William Martin.
Police say he was arguing with the gunman, 37-year-old Greg Higgs, because Martin had told Higgs earlier to stay away.
After the shooting, Higgs locked himself in Martin's house.
"(Police) were talking to him, 'Greg, come out.' You know, 'We don't mean you any harm. If you're in there, just open the blind,'" Alicea said. "Then, all of a sudden, everything went silent."
Although Alicea says she didn't hear anything, Fuquay-Varina officers and Wake County's SWAT team members were able to hear a gunshot from under the house.
The incident ended around 12:30 p.m. after SWAT team members entered the home. Officers found Higgs dead in the home's basement apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Send pictures | Classifieds | Report A Typo |
Send Tip |
Get Alerts
Most Popular | Follow abc11 on Twitter | abc11 on Facebook