Two Found Dead Outside Family Home After They Shot Each Other, Family Says

A North Carolina man and a teenager shot one another dead after two boys fought, according to the family of one of the victims.

Police in Hertford County, in northern North Carolina, were alerted to an incident on Jernigan Airport Road, near Ahoskie, at about 1:30 p.m. on Friday, April 14.

In a police statement obtained by CBS affiliate WTKR, Sheriff Dexter Hayes said officers found the two victims dead in the backyard and that the gunshot wounds on both had been "caused by each other."

The release stated a second shooting happened shortly afterward and that the home was struck multiple times.

Hayes' release stated that a man inside the home was struck by bullet fragments and was transported to a nearby hospital. He was later released.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a database that collects information about shootings from across the country, 35 people have been shot dead in North Carolina since April 1.

The same database found that 223 people in the Tar Heel State have been fatally shot since January 1.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, North Carolina had 884 homicides in 2020 and a death rate of 8.6 per 100,000 residents that year.

The Herford County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) later identified the man as Derrick Monger and the teenager as Jaylen Carey.

According to NBC affiliate WITN, Monger arrived at the home with a gun after Jaylen reportedly got into a fight with his son.

Jaylen's mother, Shamieka Carey, told the network: "Instead of reaching out to me as his parent and conveying to me what was going on and talking to me, he didn't do that.

"He came here he put in my yard with a loaded gun and he shot and killed my son."

The bullets that were fired at the house struck Jaylen's older brother and hit him in the back, which resulted in him in needing treatment.

Carey continued to tell WITN: "For now his medical injuries are stable, his emotions and his mental state, he's distraught his baby brother is dead and, you know, he tried to revive him and he saw him take his last breath."

Hayes told WITN that three of the four suspects in the shooting are being held at the Hertford County Jail.

He added that two were arrested on suspicion of two counts of attempted murder and discharging a weapon into occupied property. Both are being held under $1 million bonds. A third was charged with being an accessory to murder.

Hayes will meet with the district attorney to review witness statements and discuss whether charges should be brought against Derrick Monger's wife.

Newsweek has contacted the HCSO for comment via email.