Joshua Lee Wolverton, 20, of Ahoskie, North Carolina, was shot and killed on May 16, 2021. Officers arrived about 4:04 pm at 201 Pine Ridge Road after a shots-fired call and found Wolverton unresponsive near a driveway with a Winchester .22 rifle across his right arm. Three spent .357 shell casings were nearby and a silver Hyundai Sonata with its engine running was identified as Wolverton’s vehicle. The rifle was loaded with one round in the chamber and sixteen rounds in the magazine.

Investigators with the Ahoskie Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation concluded that 22-year-old Anthony Bryan Sutton Jr. of Ahoskie shot Wolverton several times with a handgun and that Sutton Jr. acted in self-defense. The district attorney for Beaufort, Hyde, Martin, Tyrrell, and Washington counties declined to press charges. Wolverton’s family disputed the finding, saying Joshua intended a fistfight rather than an armed attack, noting his hunting experience and the absence of identifiable fingerprints on the rifle.

Does anyone have information about the events leading up to that afternoon or about contacts between Wolverton and Sutton Jr. before May 16, 2021?