On Saturday, March 16, at approximately 7:17 a.m., the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Gaston Boat Landing on Lake Gaston, to what was considered a one vehicle wreck near the water. The vehicle was found and reported by a local fisherman.
Upon arrival and investigation, law enforcement discovered a 19-year-old black male, now identified as Sherrod Person, to have sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the body.
Screenshots of text messages, allegedly between Person and two of his friends, began circulating on social media over the weekend. The first photo showed a message, believed to be from Person to two of his friends, saying, “If I die tonight y’all boys stay up for me”.
When asked to explain, Person allegedly responded, “Sweets said she wanna talk”. The message went on to say the meeting would take place at 10 p.m. at the lake.
Both of the group chat participants advised “Rod”, as named in the chat, not to go and said the situation sounded “like a set up”.
“Rod” responded with a screenshot from an area code 252 phone number, allegedly belonging to a female called “Sweets”, where the two spoke about meeting at the lake by Northampton.
The screenshot also showed a response to the request to meet. The person sending the message wrote, “Feel like your [EXPLICIT] is trying to kill me for real. But yeah we can.”
The responder wrote, “Boy shut up. You know that used to be our spot”.
Messages between the same area code 252 phone number and another person were also posted. The texts, from someone later identified in the messages as “Sweets”, started at 2:39 a.m. on Saturday morning with a message asking if there were cameras at the lake by the Northampton factory.
At 9:53 a.m. the same person texted, “Sherrod died last night”. The person responding asked if “Sweets” was ok because they knew her and Sherrod were close.
“Sweets” stated that they were in the middle of the situation because they were with Person the night before. The messages went on to say, “but he was alive when I left him” and that people were looking for them and making threats.
The two continued to text about messages on “Sherrod’s phone” and how, during the meet up at the lake, they had only talked about things that Person was going through with his family and that he was scared about something.
The chat participant responded, “Lord have mercy Sweets. Well you definitely gonna be in it because you were the last one with him. And if there is messages to prove that, you are definitely in trouble.”
Captain Patrick Jacobs of the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division says, “Law enforcement is aware of these messages and they are being investigated.
I have no comment on the alleged meet up. This information along with all other information is being thoroughly investigated.”
As of the date of this publication no arrests have been made. Northampton County Sheriff’s Office along with NC State Bureau of Investigation will be assisting Gaston Police Department with this ongoing homicide investigation.
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