Suspect identified in shooting death of grandmother at stop sign, NC sheriff says
A 72-year-old North Carolina woman who was shot at a stop sign Monday has died — and police say a suspect has been identified.
Margie Pipkin was out running errands in Erwin that morning when she was shot in the head while waiting in her truck at a stop sign near her home, according to Harnett County Sheriff Wayne Coats. She was found unconscious at her steering wheel and was taken to a hospital in Fayetteville with critical injuries.
She died Tuesday night, Coats said Wednesday during a new conference streamed live by local news outlets WRAL and WNCN.
Coats said Pipkin was an “innocent bystander.”
“This was a mother — a grandmother — just going about her daily chores being a grandmother,” he said Wednesday.
Coats said the sheriff’s office has obtained warrants for first-degree murder on 29-year-old Artis Lewis Elliott.
“This is not going to bring closure to the family but maybe it will help in some way,” Coats said.
Elliott was supposed to turn himself in at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Coats said, but the sheriff’s office had not “seen or heard from him” at that point and considered him a fugitive.
But WRAL and ABC11 report that Elliott has since turned himself in and was taken into custody.
Officials said Monday that two vehicles were believed to be involved in the shooting, but Coats said Wednesday that he believes Elliott is the only person suspected of being involved “as far as killing Miss Pipkin.”
But he said the investigation is ongoing.
Officials have said Pipkin was not the intended target of the shooting. Coats said Wednesday investigators now know who the target was but that the sheriff’s office won’t release the person’s name for safety reasons.
Coats said that Pipkin was “well-loved in her community.”
“(She) minded her own business but was loved by that community out there,” he said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 10:06 AM with the headline "Suspect identified in shooting death of grandmother at stop sign, NC sheriff says."
