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(CNN) -- A man accused of killing eight people in a shooting spree at a North Carolina nursing home is the husband of a woman who worked there, police said Monday.
Robert Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder in the nursing home shootings.
Robert Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder in the nursing home shootings.
The two may have been separated, said Carthage, North Carolina, Police Chief Chris McKenzie. He did not say if the wife was in the building at the time.
The alleged gunman, Robert Stewart, was carrying several weapons, authorities said. Seven patients and a nurse were killed, and three people were wounded, including a visitor and a police officer.
All the wounded are expected to survive, McKenzie said.
Officer Justin Garner was shot in the leg, McKenzie said. "As I understand, there were three pellets in his shin, leg and foot," he said.
Garner entered the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center alone with no backup and brought the shooting spree to an end with a single shot, hitting Stewart in the "chest, upper torso area," McKenzie said.
"If that's not heroism, I don't know what is," he said.
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Garner is "in very good spirits, resting at home," he added. McKenzie said he did not know the latest on Stewart's condition.
The alleged gunman's motive remained a mystery.
Stewart has not made a public statement nor has an attorney on his behalf.
His wife has not issued a statement either.
Meanwhile, his ex-wife, Sue Griffin, told CNN affiliate WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, "He did have some violent tendencies from time to time." She added that when she heard the news of Sunday's shooting, "I couldn't believe it -- then I stopped, thought about it and thought, 'It is possible. It's possible.' "
At a news conference Monday, McKenzie described the shooting spree as "unimaginable" and "horrific."
"Everything that you can possibly imagine that is bad in the world," he said. "This doesn't happen, but it did." He described the small town as "strong, faith-based -- and that faith will get this community through this."
The tragedy draws attention to what McKenzie called the toughest part of training police officers.
Officers are told not to wait for backup when there are many lives on the line, he said. "That's the hardest thing -- to try to convince them you can't wait, you have to go."
If Garner had waited for backup, "there would have been a lot more people [killed]," McKenzie said.
The slain patients ranged in age from 78 to 98, Moore County District Attorney Maureen Krueger said.
A witness told CNN affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh-Durham that Stewart was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and other weapons.
Jerry Avant Sr. told WRAL that his son, Jerry Avant, a 39-year-old registered nurse, was the employee who was killed in the shooting. He said a doctor told him that his son had been shot more than two dozen times.
The elder Avant said the doctor told him his son "undoubtedly saved a lot of lives."
(CNN) -- A man accused of killing eight people in a shooting spree at a North Carolina nursing home is the husband of a woman who worked there, police said Monday.
Robert Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder in the nursing home shootings.
Jerry Avant Sr. told WRAL that his son, Jerry Avant, a 39-year-old registered nurse, was the employee who was killed in the shooting. He said a doctor told him that his son had been shot more than two dozen times.
The elder Avant said the doctor told him his son "undoubtedly saved a lot of lives."
Stewart faces eight counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony assault on a police officer, and other charges are pending, Krueger said.
i am at my moms which is about 30 miles from where this happened..the whole area is in kinda shock...just numb by it..not numb to it..no one can understand madness till you are there...and then it is too late
Makes me wonder..........is this how the beginning of the end of the world is going to come around?
Hi Biker:
Makes me wonder..........is this how the beginning of the end of the world is going to come around?
This is what happens when the Gov't sponsors too much Outsourcing of JOBS and allows too many Illegal Aliens to run around displacing U.S. workers from JOBS amid the overuse of 23 Guest Worker Programs. Now that the local economies are IMPLODING, then more and more 'legal' U.S. Citizens are falling through the widening cracks in our society while losing all signs of human dignity. The nursing home where my brother has been for years has seen the white and black workers transformed into cheap illegal Hispanic workers and lower wages for everyone, which looks good for nursing home profits right up until the fired/disgruntled worker shows up with a gun.
This is what We The People deserve for allowing U.S. workers to be displaced by millions and millions and millions of Illegal Alien Foreign Nationals while everyone looks the other way and your JOB might be next . . .
GL,
Terral
ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. So now you are claiming that if someone gets fired they have a right to murder people at their old job?
Further you RETARD, no Hispanics were involved. Ohh and on another note you DUMB ASS.
Except the janitorial services all the hired help that work with the patients are licensed in some fashion by the State. Even the person that changes the bedpan has a certificate from the State.
