COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- The family of a teen involved in a double shooting that killed him and his stepdad in Columbus County yesterday is speaking out about both victims and what may have led to the situation.
"They were sitting on the porch chilling," Donterius Rich said of his brother Gregory Javon McKinnies and stepfather James Bernard Soles. "It was 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning, and they were just sitting on the porch chilling. He looked at Javon as a son."
But somewhere over the course of a few hours Rich says something changed his stepfather.
"Bernard was upset a little bit, and they were trying to figure out what was wrong," Rich said. "You don't mess with somebody while they're upset. With them trying to figure out why he was mad, it made them mad, because they couldn't figure out why he was mad."
A simple disagreement grew into something more. Rich tried to defuse the situation by walking his 16-year-old brother away.
"While I had him calm he said, 'Just don't walk up on me.' When he came up in his face, they pushed each other a little bit," Rich said. "My brother stepped back one step, and he shot, and then james shot, walked back in the shop and fell. I was standing right behind them, so it was by the grace of god I didn't get hit."
In the blink of an eye Rich had lost his brother and stepfather.
"That was my baby brother. I'm going to miss him," Rich said. "You all might never see me again, but I just want you all to know it's time for the younger people to step up and make a change."
Last night Columbus County Sheriff Chris Batten said that before Thursday his office had never taken a call at the home on Pine Circle Drive.
