On May 16, 2024, 33-year-old Patrick Monta Bland was fatally shot in the Sterling Pointe community of Winterville, North Carolina. Officers from the Greenville Police Department found Bland near building 3909 after reports of multiple gunshots around 7 p.m.; he succumbed to his injuries at the scene. Investigators say the shooting stemmed from an ongoing dispute between neighbors and that Bland was visiting 32-year-old Deontre Markee Taylor and was not the intended target.

Following the shooting, Taylor, a Winterville resident, was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and discharging a weapon into occupied property. A 20-year-old, Kentavious Terell Condery of Farmville, was arrested on an open count of murder, and a third suspect, 19-year-old Zaquavion Carney of Winterville, was apprehended and also charged with murder. All three were held at the Pitt County Detention Center.

Bland lived in Grifton and is survived by his parents, children, siblings, and his girlfriend, who is the mother of his children. Funeral services were held May 25, 2024, at Heath Chapel Abundant Life Ministries in Kinston, with interment at Lodge Hall Cemetery in Snow Hill.

If anyone witnessed the shooting or has information about the neighborhood dispute, please share what is known.