A Robeson County man was arrested on Saturday after he stole an ambulance and shot and killed a woman after crashing into her car, deputies say.
According to the Robeson County Sheriff's Office, EMS was dispatched to Chavis Road in Maxton for a medical emergency. They picked up 36-year-old Cheyenne Woods but on the way to the hospital, Woods, held up a gun at two EMS workers and then fled in the ambulance.
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Authorities did not provide details as to what kind of emergency Woods was reportedly having to call EMS.
After taking the ambulance, Woods crashed into a car. Deputies said he exited the ambulance, approached the car and shot 74-year-old Marie Locklear. She was taken to the hospital for treatment where she later died.
It's unclear how the crash happened, and what led up to Woods shooting Locklear. Robeson Sheriff Burnis Wilkins called it a senseless act.
Woods was arrested in the area of the shooting. He is charged with first-degree murder, eight counts of discharging a weapon into occupied property, robbery with a weapon, possessing a firearm by a felon and possessing a stolen firearm.
Woods is being held in the Robeson County Detention Center without bond.
“This is yet another senseless act of murder committed by a repeat violent felon whose criminal history includes a prior murder conviction,” Wilkins said.
His office said that Woods, who was out on bond on firearm and assault charges, "demonstrated time and again a complete disregard for human life and the rule of law."
"Failures to keep known violent offenders incarcerated place innocent citizens at risk, and this tragedy is a painful reminder of the consequences when accountability is lost," Wilkins said.
This recent incident is not the first time Woods has been at the center of a deadly shooting case.
In 2017, he was convicted and sentenced to a maximum of 13 years after pleading guilty to a lesser sentence for a second-degree murder charge in April 2010. According to the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections (NCDAC) Offender page, he was sentenced in Sept. 2017 and was supposed to carry out a minimum of 10 years, but was released in 2022 having only served five years.
At the time of the 2010 murder, Woods also faced first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon charges in the 2008 shooting death of Jessica Cahoon of Fayetteville.
He was named as a second suspect in that murder after authorities said he and other suspects ambushed Cahoon and her boyfriend while they were driving. Cahoon's boyfriend Antonio Locklear at the time told authorities that three men in a champagne-colored Cadillac started shooting at Cahoon's Honda Civic and forced them to stop on the country road.
The NCDAC offender page shows that Woods was convicted in 2012 for only the robbery with a dangerous weapon charge. He was released in 2016.