Inset: Michael Sharron Wright (Henderson Police). Background: Street in Henderson, North Carolina, where Wright allegedly murdered two people (Google Maps).
A convicted murderer in North Carolina shot and killed a 63-year-old woman and a 26-year-old man after a dispute over garbage, authorities say.
Police responded around 6:45 p.m. on Sunday to a shooting in the 600 block of Maple Street in Henderson, some 40 miles northeast of Raleigh, the agency said on its Facebook page. When cops arrived, they found the victims, Teresa Davis and her son Joseph Jeffreys Jr., suffering from gunshot wounds. Medical staff pronounced the pair dead on scene.
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Detectives identified the suspect as 41-year-old Michael Sharron Wright and obtained an arrest warrant on two counts of murder. Police did not detail the circumstances behind the alleged homicide, but the victims’ family and friends’ interviews with local CBS affiliate WNCN filled in some of the blanks. Davis and Wright were reportedly neighbors. Jeffreys went to Wright’s home to confront him about some garbage cans the suspect had thrown in Davis’ yard. Wright allegedly shot the victims with Jeffreys’ gun.
“It was over trash over some freakin’ trash,” Davis’ friend, Tennisha Eaton, told the TV station. “This woman is gone. This boy is gone, over some trash.”
Eaton also said the shooting happened in front of Jeffreys’ three children.
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“That’s so heartbreaking for the grandkids to be in the car, his kids to see their daddy and their grandmother get killed,” Eaton said. “That’s senseless.”
As cops searched for Wright, they said he should be considered armed and dangerous. Records show Wright was released from prison in January 2024 after he murdered his uncle.
Wright was 26 when he was charged with killing his uncle, 54-year-old Kirk Douglas Wright Sr., in 2010, local NBC affiliate WRAL reported at the time. Cops found Kirk Wright buried in a shallow grave in his backyard. Michael Wright was convicted of second-degree murder about three years later and served about 14 years behind bars.
On Monday, Wright turned himself in to cops in an unconventional way. He contacted Granville County Sheriff Robert Fountain around 2:30 a.m. and said he would surrender, but only to Fountain.
“Around 8 o’clock I received another phone call from an individual identifying himself as Mr. Michael Wright,” Fountain explained. “He told me to start heading toward Louisburg and he would give me further instructions on where he would be once I got there.”
Wright ended up meeting Fountain in the parking lot of a local restaurant, where the sheriff took the suspect into custody.
“The community trusts me in what we’re doing and they know I’m going to do the right thing,”
Wright remains at the Granville County Detention Center without bond.
