Sheriff names 5 people fatally shot in southeast North Carolina home

CLINTON, N.C. (AP) — A sheriff’s office in southeast North Carolina released on Friday the names of five people found fatally shot in a home earlier this week.

Sampson County sheriff’s deputies were called to a home off Garland Highway outside Clinton shortly before 1 a.m. Thursday for a report of a homicide. They found five people dead from gunshot wounds, Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said in a statement.

The victims were Alfonza Jeffers, 73, of Clinton; Lamar Williams, 58, of Rose Hill; Dagoberto Lopez, 33, of Garland; Hector Salazar Lopez, 39, of Garland; and Jamie Lynn Rowland, 47, of Clinton, the sheriff’s office announced.

Thornton did not have information about a suspect late Friday but told reporters his department was investigating some people of interest.

Authorities had received a 911 call from a person who spoke to one victim around 11 p.m. Wednesday and later found the bodies when they entered the home, Capt. Eric Pope said in a news conference Thursday.

The sheriff’s office did not respond to requests for additional information, including whether the homicides are being investigated as a mass killing, which the FBI defines as the shooting death of four or more people, excluding any shooters, within 24 hours.

The bodies were found hours after a shooting in Lewiston, Maine — the 36th mass killing in the U.S. this year.