As community mourns, sheriff says mass shooting stemmed from fight over money

Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said Corey Grant Leak, 46, shot three family members and a lifelong friend on Tuesday afternoon during an argument over money. Family members and sources close to the investigation told WRAL News that money was connected to drugs.

James Elijah Beauregard, 45, Sierra Nicole Wherry, 34, and Donald Kendrick Williams, 51, died in the shooting. Equilla Williams-Biggs, 71, was injured. All were shot multiple times, Wilkins said. Williams-Biggs is expected to recover, according to the sheriff.

It was Williams-Biggs' grandson who called 911.

"Hurry up! My grandmother is shot and there's two dead people on the ground," he told dispatchers.

There will be prayers for the victims Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the First Missionary Baptist Church in Red Springs.

According to Wilkins, Leak was Williams-Biggs' nephew. His 71-year-old aunt, also a mother and grandmother, was allowing Leak, who was on parole for a murder he committed in 1993, to live in her home for free, Wilkins said.

Wherry and Williams, Leak's cousins, were brother and sister and Williams-Biggs' children. Beauregard was Leak's lifelong friend, the sheriff said.

"What has happened here is we have taken away a family," said Wilkins, adding the family was well respected and loved in their community.

Wherry, according to sources, was visiting Williams-Biggs when the shooting happened.

The press conference on Wednesday began with audio from a 911 call placed Tuesday afternoon. The caller can be heard screaming and crying, asking for an ambulance.

The shooting took place before 2:45 p.m. Tuesday in a Red Springs neighborhood near the intersection of Samuel Drive and 8th Avenue. Wilkins said between 30 and 40 deputies responded to the crime scene and immediately began searching for Leak.

Police said Leak fired the gun at the victims and fled the scene. The sheriff said it was an argument over money.

Detectives found Leak 15 miles away after someone spotted him on a moped without a helmet in Maxton, where he was later arrested.

Leak was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, one count of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill and one count of possession of firearm by a convicted felon.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at 910-671-3100 or 910-671-3170.

Leak was convicted in 1996 of the murder of Arreatta Scott and spent almost 27 years in prison.

"Had this guy been locked up like he should have been ... none of this would have occurred," Wilkins said. "If that guy would have shoot his own family members, just imagine what he would do to you and I."

Leak was paroled on Oct. 12, 2020, and had no record of any criminal offenses since that time.

He was being held without bond for the shootings on Tuesday, Wilkins said.

It has been a deadly January in the United States. The Associated Press reports 39 people dead in six mass killings, including one this week in Monterey Park, California, that left 11 people dead at a dance hall as they welcomed in the Lunar New Year.

A mass shooting involves at least four people shot, not including the shooter, in a single shooting spree, which can include multiple locations. The U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center reports almost all the attacks in January were carried out by one person, 96% of attackers were men and the attackers ranged in age from 14 to 87.