A North Carolina man was arrested on murder charges in the killings of a neighbor and a married couple at separate crime scenes over the weekend.
David Lever, 55, of Greenville, faces three open counts of murder after police found three people shot to death on Friday in Greenville, according to the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office.
The victims were identified as 80-year-old Anthony Gribble and his 76-year-old wife Paula Gribble, who were found dead at their home on Peace Ridge Court, and Enrique Reyes, 64, who was found dead at his home on Forest Acres Drive. All had been shot.
An investigation launched by the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office spanned four different crime scenes, including the victims’ homes, which were nearly 4.5 miles away from each other.
Lever, a real estate broker who lives on Forest Acres Drive, same as Reyes, was taken into custody on Friday after being detained at one of the crime scenes.
Authorities said in a release that the preliminary investigation reveals the incidents are related, however, adding that “this is an active investigation.”
At a press conference on Monday, Sheriff Paula Dance revealed that Lever had a cache of weapons in his home and van, and that there would have been additional victims had the son of the elderly couple not held Lever at gunpoint.
“The investigation of these cases leads us to believe there would have been additional victims had a family member of the victims not intervened until our deputies were able to arrive,” Dance said.
A connection between Lever and Reyes, who is reported to be a East Carolina University professor, according to WITN, is not yet known. But the news outlet reports that the Gribble couple used Lever as their realtor when they bought their home in 2014.
Lever made his first court appearance Monday morning from the Pitt County jail where District Court Judge Daniel Entzminger ordered him to be continued held at the Pitt County Detention Center on no bond.
As the suspect was being escorted back to his cell, he called the judge a mother f***er,” WITN reported.
Lever is expected to be back in court on January 29. Additional charges are pending.