A simmering domestic dispute boiled over into outright bloodshed in Raleigh this morning, leaving one man clinging to life after being shot point-blank by his girlfriend’s vengeful ex-boyfriend.
According to stunned witnesses, the drama began unfolding around 10:30am when a man police have yet to identify kicked in the door of a townhome on Herndon Oaks Way near Trawick Road. Clutching a handgun, the enraged intruder made a beeline for the second-floor bedroom where he knew he would find his ex-lover and her new partner.
“I heard screaming and carry-on, then a huge bang,” recalled neighbor Janice Wilkins. “Next thing I knew, there was more hollering and a man came running out clutching his chest.”
Inside the blood-spattered bedroom, Raleigh PD found the 32-year-old victim suffocating from a single gunshot blast to the center of his chest. He was rushed into emergency surgery in what police described as “extremely critical” condition.
While details remain hazy, investigators believe the tragic shooting stemmed from a heated romantic rivalry between the victim and his attacker’s ex-girlfriend, who reportedly lived at the townhome and had recently started dating her new beau.
“From witness accounts, it appears the suspect was simply unable to process his feelings over the failed relationship in a healthy manner,” said Raleigh Police Captain James Bradford. “Instead he made the fateful decision to take matter into his own hands with brutal consequences.”
As the intense manhunt for the armed and dangerous assailant continues, Bradford warned that he should be considered “highly unbalanced and extremely hazardous.”
