Mother, children victims in Cumberland County double murder-suicide
CUMBERLAND COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- A mother and her two teenaged children are the victims of a murder-suicide in Cumberland County.
Diana Hathaway, 31, and her son, Zachary Phillips, 14, died Tuesday night when a shooter attacked them at a friend's home. The shooter has been identified as Gerald Patrick Marr, 22, of Spring Lake.
Marr also shot Hathaway's 15-year-old daughter, Kelsey Phillips, before killing himself. Phillips survived.
Shots rang out along the 6700 block of Winthrop Drive in Fayetteville around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. It happened in front of Zachary's girlfriend's home.
That girl's sister, MacKenzie Cantwell, said Zachary's family met Marr through church. Marr served as some sort of mentor. Cantwell recalls seeing Marr around her home in the weeks leading up to the shooting, and said he tried to keep Zachary and her sister apart. She believes the victims came to her home Tuesday night to warn them about Marr.
"They were coming over here, which nobody knows what they were coming to tell us... something about this guy," said Cantwell.
Cantwell said Marr was dropped off to her neighborhood Tuesday night, and shot Zachary's family one by one, starting with the 14-year-old boy.
"First person I go to is Zack, because he's my little sister's boyfriend," said Cantwell, who ran outside after the gunfire. "I try to save his life. There's nothing I can do. He's already dead."
Cantwell said Marr shot Hathaway inside her mini-van, killing her. Then, he shot through the van at Kelsey, who was shielded by another family friend. She sustained gunshots wounds to her arm.
"She looks at me and she's like, 'My whole family's dead. Everybody's dead, but me,'" said Cantwell.
Authorities have not named a motive in the shooting.
They said a fourth person and friend of Hathaway's family, 17-year-old Billy Setzer, was also on the scene, but he was not injured.
On Wednesday, Kelsey Phillips's uncle, Michael Hathaway, said the girl was recovering at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and expected to be fine.
