Two motorcyclists shot to death, another injured, while riding in NC, police say
Police made an arrest Tuesday after two motorcyclists were fatally shot and another was hurt while riding on a North Carolina highway, officials say.
Around 4:45 p.m. Monday, deputies with the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office received reports that two people were found “laying along the roadway” of the northbound lane of the U.S. 29 bypass, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Deputies and first responders arrived at the scene and found a third person “shortly after,” the sheriff’s office says.
The three “appear to have suffered apparent gunshot wounds” while traveling on two motorcycles, the sheriff’s office says.
Two of the three people are dead, the sheriff’s office says.
Deputies on Monday identified and released a photo of the “suspect vehicle” they believe fired the shots, warning the public that the suspect should be “considered armed and dangerous.”
The truck was later located in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, and the suspect, 41-year-old Martin Calvin Cox Jr., was arrested by Kentucky State Police, the sheriff’s office said.
A Rockingham County detective notified officers in Kentucky that Cox was in the area, records show. A deputy in Kentucky saw a truck matching the description and license plate number of the suspect vehicle traveling on Interstate 65 and pulled it over.
Other law enforcement arrived at the scene and detained Cox. He was “taken for an interview” before he was arrested on warrants from North Carolina and extradited.
Cox, who is from Guilford County, is accused of two counts of first-degree murder, the sheriff’s office said.
Detectives don’t believe the shooting was a “random act,” and the sheriff’s office says the investigation is ongoing.
No other information had been released as of Wednesday.
“The victims’ information is not being released by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office at this time out of concerns for the safety of the surviving victim and that of the victims’ families,” the sheriff’s office says.
This story was originally published May 25, 2021 at 10:06 AM with the headline "Two motorcyclists shot to death, another injured, while riding in NC, police say."
