On the afternoon of Saturday, August 22, 2026, 69-year-old Tommy Joe Burns was shot on the front porch of a home in the 200 block of Wheeler Street near Salisbury Street in Wadesboro, North Carolina. Officers responding to calls of multiple shots fired just after 4 p.m. found Burns with several gunshot wounds; he was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead.

Police say an altercation occurred earlier that day between Burns and 50-year-old Donnie Junior Willis, and investigators believe the fight precipitated the shooting. Willis was identified, arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Burns’s death. The case is moving through the criminal justice system.

If anyone witnessed the events on Wheeler Street that afternoon or has information about the fight that preceded the shooting, please share what is known with investigators.