When gunshots rang out during a large Halloween gathering in Robeson County last fall, a party-goer pleaded for help for a teenage boy who was shot in the back.
“Please, ma’am, please,” the caller, who sounded like a teenager or young man, told the emergency communications dispatcher. “He’s a little boy, ma’am. He’s dead. He’s shot.”
The caller dialed 911 twice more, each time sounding more urgent. The dispatcher assured him law enforcement was on the way.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” the caller said. “Lay him on his back?”
When the dispatcher asked if he could apply pressure to the wound, the caller yelled out to others: “Put pressure on the wound! She said put pressure on the wound!”
The calls were among dozens that the Robeson County E-911 Communications Center received on October 25 about a deadly outdoor party on Dixon Drive near Maxton. The recordings highlight chaos and fear as some people took cover behind vehicles and ran into nearby woods. One caller, a 13-year-old girl, said she was holed up in the bathroom of her home after someone was shot in the stomach.
When deputies arrived shortly after 1:15 a.m., they found two people shot dead: Nehemiah Locklear, 16, and Jessie Locklear Jr., 49. (They were not related.) Eleven others were treated at local hospitals for gunshot wounds, officials said.
The Border Belt Independent obtained the recordings after filing a public records request with Robeson County. Under North Carolina law, 911 calls are public records, even when law enforcement is still investigating a case related to the calls.
Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said hundreds of people were at the party, and at least 14 guns were used in what he called a “shootout.” But investigators have not charged anyone with the shootings.
Damien McLean, chief deputy of the sheriff’s office, said investigators have identified one of the shooters “and have recovered several weapons from individuals present at the scene.”
“The weapons will be examined by ballistic experts,” McLean told the BBI.
The North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement Division charged six people in November related to hosting and operating the party, including providing alcohol to underage party-goers, and selling alcohol and hiring armed private security officers without obtaining proper permits.
Some people contacted 911 to complain about noise from the party. “Music’s been blasting all day and all night long,” one caller told a dispatcher.
Wilkins has said deputies were on their way to the party when dispatchers began to receive reports about people being shot.
“It’s a lot of shooting going on right now,” one caller reported as he tried to calm other people around him. “Everybody relax! Stop running! We have nowhere to go. We cannot see where we’re going. Can everybody chill?”
A female caller said she was behind a truck and heard gunshots stop and then start again. She said she was looking for her sister and begged law enforcement to get there.
“How long is it going to take?” she asked the dispatcher. “We don’t want to lose our life.”
As deputies arrived, some people with gunshot wounds left in private vehicles for the hospital. The recordings include several calls between Robeson County dispatchers and Scotland Memorial Hospital, where several victims were treated.
Back at the party, a 13-year-old called 911 and said she was with an 18-year-old who was shot but still breathing. “Are you sending an ambulance?” she asked.
Then: “Oh my God, there’s more shooting.”
“There’s more shooting?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yes,” the girl said. “I’m in my house in the bathroom on the floor.”
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating, with help from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the local district attorney’s office, McLean said.