Gunman wounds 4 in law firm and Wal-Mart parking lots
Updated: Police say man who had previously been denied a gun permit shot and seriously wounded four people Friday in Greenville, N.C., including an insurance adjuster in a vehicle in a law firm parking lot.
Lakim Anthony Faust was also wounded in a subsequent gunfight with police, but he is expected to recover, according to the Daily Reflector and WNCT. He faces four counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Friday’s shootings began in the Kellum Law Firm parking lot, where an adjuster in a Geico vehicle was wounded by a shotgun blast at about 11:40 a.m.. The suspect, who reportedly had 100 rounds of ammunition with him, then went to a nearby Wal-Mart store parking lot and shot three more people, authorities said. A apartment close to the law firm where police say Faust lived was searched Saturday.
Kellum attorneys said the suspect has no connection to the law firm. “He just happened to walk through that parking lot,” Norman Kellum told WITN. “We were just as shocked as the rest of Eastern North Carolina.”
The firm’s managing attorney, Russ Niedell, said a female employee may have witnessed the shooting and came running into the office. Others at the office went out to aid the victim until authorities arrived.
Although the Greenville police chief said Faust had no prior record of any arrest for a major crime in the state, he had previously been banned from a local community college campus for disruptive behavior and was subsequently cited for trespassing there, according to the Daily Reflector.
An investigation continues. The motive for the shootings is not known.
Updated at 4:25 p.m. to add information from WITN.
