Slaying Victim's Son Killed in Apparent Drive-By Shooting

Gabriel Donald William Jacobs was found in his Ford truck on N.C. Highway 86 about nine miles north of Hillsborough after 11 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said. The truck had run off the highway and into a utility pole, they said.

Deputies had to break the passenger-side window of the truck to get to Jacobs. He was taken to UNC Hospitals, where he was pronounced dead.

The body was sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office to determine the cause of death.  Authorities said they found a small hole in the truck's driver-side door, and Jacobs had an injury to the upper leg and hip area consistent with that of a bullet wound.

Deputies were responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle at the Jacobs' family home in Cedar Grove when they found the wreck, said Lt. Ned Thorpe, of the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Jacobs' father, Donald Jacobs, reported the suspicious vehicle, but deputies never found it," Thorpe said.

"I'm not sure it's a coincidence, but he made the call," he said.

Gabriel Jacobs is the son of Eva Marie Johnson Jacobs, who was shot in both legs and killed outside her Cedar Grove home on Nov. 26. Authorities said they haven't determined whether the two shootings are connected.

Eva Jacobs called 911 before she died to report a break-in at her house.

Her estranged husband said men at the house the day of the shooting were asking for his son. Gabriel Jacobs was questioned for several hours after his mother's shooting but wasn't considered a suspect in the case.

Reshaun Cates, 20, of 511 Park Ave. in Durham, and Doné Octavous Johnson, 20, no address available, were arrested in December and charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in Eva Jacobs' death. Authorities said the pair stole money and marijuana from the home.