George Lee Dickens Jr., a 36-year-old African American man, was shot and killed on February 28, 2015, inside Master’s Touch Barber Shop on West St. James Street in Tarboro, North Carolina. Witnesses saw people running from the shop and reported a young man leaving the building with a gun in his hand.

The killing was one of a series of shootings that day. About 30 minutes later, Ventura Sanchez, 36, was found shot inside a vehicle at Lot 48-B Mobile Home Estates and was taken to Vidant Edgecombe Hospital, where he later died. Ana Marlen Cruz-Franco, 28, was found dead inside a nearby residence. Authorities identified Ian Sherrod, 40, as the suspect in all three shootings; he lived next door to Sanchez and Cruz-Franco. Officers located Sherrod in a silver Ford truck at a business on Main Street. After repeated commands, he reportedly pointed a firearm at law enforcement and was shot and killed by officers. A Tarboro police officer and an Edgecombe County deputy were placed on paid administrative leave and the State Bureau of Investigation opened a probe into the officer-involved shooting. Reports say Sherrod had been experiencing severe mental illness, described as paranoid schizophrenia, with delusional behavior in the weeks before the incidents.

Friends and family remembered Dickens as a caring, community-involved person. Does anyone have information about George Dickens Jr. or the events at the barber shop that day?