Four Shot at Lewiston Woodville Home Sitting on Site of Unsolved 2023 Murder

Four people were shot Saturday night in Lewiston Woodville, at a residence sitting on the same patch of ground where a man was gunned down and killed in an unsolved 2023 homicide. Bertie County deputies arrested 27-year-old Jakel Vaughan of Murfreesboro in connection with the shooting, and he is now being held without bond at the Lenoir County Detention Facility.

According to the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, the Bertie Communications Center received a call at 10:16 p.m. Saturday reporting that a female had been shot in the Lewiston Woodville area. The shooting happened at a residence at the intersection of Church Street and Lee Street, and it left four people injured. One victim is reportedly hospitalized in critical condition, per the paper's report, citing Bertie County Sheriff Tyrone Ruffin.

Victims Rushed to Hospitals Miles Away

Three of the gunshot victims arrived at ECU Health Roanoke-Chowan Hospital in Ahoskie, while a fourth victim arrived at ECU Health Bertie Hospital in Windsor, according to the same report. The destinations underscore the reality of emergency response in this stretch of rural Bertie County, where hospitals sit outside town limits. The 2024 Bertie County community health assessment from Albemarle Regional Health Services highlights the need for greater access to health services and notes that rural residents may live farther from health care. According to the North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services, the North Carolina Trauma Registry collects data on all trauma patients to facilitate trauma-system development. Investigators are interviewing the victims to uncover the events leading up to the shooting, the paper notes, and the sequence that led four people to be shot at one address remains under investigation.

Vaughan was arrested and charged with felony discharge of a firearm from an enclosure, per Ruffin; the report does not provide statutory classifications for the charge. The investigation is continuing, and additional arrests and more charges against Vaughan may result, according to the News-Herald's report.

Same Address Tied to a 2023 Killing

The house at Church and Lee streets carries a grim history. On April 6, 2023, at approximately 9:44 p.m., Bertie County Sheriff's deputies responded to a shooting at that same residence and found 33-year-old Horace Lassiter Jr. suffering multiple gunshot wounds outside his home; he later died. That homicide, per the Bertie County Sheriff's Office, has resulted in no arrests to date. As recently as June, Sheriff Ruffin held a press briefing on unsolved homicides.

Lewiston Woodville is a small Bertie County town. The town is small — an estimated 399 residents in 2026, down 7.2 percent from the 2020 census count of 430 — and its poverty rate stands at 36.96 percent, per World Population Review. A shooting that injures four people is a significant event for a community of that size.

Part of a Wider Pattern in Bertie County

Bertie County has seen several high-profile violent incidents. Earlier this month, a midday shooting in neighboring Kelford left a man wounded and sent deputies searching for suspect Marvin Gaye Outlaw in a town of roughly 200 residents. The available reports do not confirm the reported May 2025 federal prosecution involving a Lewiston Woodville resident.

According to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation's 2024 annual summary, North Carolina's violent-crime rate decreased 4.3 percent statewide, with violent crime defined as murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation reported that the statewide violent-crime rate decreased 0.1 percent in 2023.

Vaughan's arrest resolves at least one piece of Saturday's shooting, but investigators have not said whether it connects to the unresolved 2023 killing at the same address. Vaughan, like any defendant, is presumed innocent, and the case remains open as authorities weigh further charges.