Union County News

08:09 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 14, 2006

By 6NEWS Staff
E-mail Us: 6NEWS@WCNC.com

6NEWS

Deputies block traffic around the scene of the shooting.

WESLEY CHAPEL, NC -- Two boys asleep in their beds Wednesday morning were shot by their father, who then apparently turned the gun on himself, the Union County Sheriff said.

Dispatch received a 911 call around 7:20 a.m. from a woman who lives in the home on Pumpernickel Lane in the Price Mill neighborhood. She said she was downstairs when she heard gunshots coming from upstairs.

When deputies arrived at the home they found Ross, 8, and Ryan, 10, shot in separate bedrooms. The father, Mark Minor, 44, was found dead in a third bedroom from an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound, Sheriff Eddie Cathey said.

Ross and Ryan Minor were transported with life threatening injuries to Carolinas Medical Center. They are listed in critical condition at this time. Their mother was not injured and was taken to CMC in a deputy’s car.

Investigators talked to the mother, but Cathey said it is not clear what lead to the gunfire.

“We’ll never understand why it happened, but we’ll try to do the best that we can to figure out what did happen,” Cathey said.

Sources told 6NEWS the couple might have been experiencing marital problems, but could not confirm if a divorce was in the works. Deputies are also looking to find out if Minor had any kind of mental illness.

Investigators are reviewing the mother’s 911 call and they don’t believe she was involved in the shooting.

One man who lives in Prince Mill said the neighborhood of 80 homes has only been around for five years. Most of the residents know the Minor family and they’re very shaken by the shooting. The sheriff said no one will ever know why a parent would do this.

“It’s a shock to us as it is anybody,” Cathey said.

Investigators believe two weapons, both handguns, were used in the shooting. They found several weapons inside the home, but the sheriff said that is not unusual for an avid hunter.

The crime scene was difficult to deal with for deputies, Cathey said, because it involved children.

"They are struggling to deal with this," Cathey said. "This is very traumatic for any officer because you reflect on your own families."

Minor worked for the City of Monroe's natural gas department. He was recently promoted to energy service manager and was scheduled to start the new position a week from Monday.

Neighbors describe father as a "Rambo" type of guy

6NEWS was one of the first news crews on the scene. Investigator Mark Boone spent the day gathering more information about the father and his two sons.

A few neighbors have described Minor as a “Rambo” character. He was a muscular, physically fit guy who was also an avid hunter.

He would often take his two sons on all-terrain vehicles on trails behind the family's home. They said he lead a very active lifestyle, one that was suddenly shattered by gunfire.

Friends said Minor worked out at the Monroe Aquatics Center nearly every day. And in Minor's Wesley Chapel subdivision, neighbors said Minor was a handy man who mowed lawns, did electrical work, and made other repairs.

Roseann Bateman never met Minor, but she knew his two children, they went to Wesley Chapel Elementary for the 2004-2005 school year. Bateman is the school’s principal. It was there that Minor’s oldest son made the biggest impression on her.

“He was very quiet, but had this wonderful smile. The kind that you remember because it sort of lights up a room,” Bateman said.

Now neighbors are left wondering if there was a dark side of Minor. The avid hunter was once warned by the homeowner's association about shooting too close to homes.

“He said he always carried a pistol around with him everywhere he went, I mean that's obviously not the nature of a normal man,” said neighbor Colin Bennett.

The 6NEWS investigators did not find an arrest record in the Carolinas for Minor. The sheriff said he knows of no other time when deputies were called to the family's home.

Even less is known about the children's mother, Grace Minor. Sources told 6NEWS she is a former Junior Olympian, originally from Rhode Island, who works full-time in finance. Police did not confirm where she was employed.

6NEWS reporters Glenn Counts and Mark Boone contributed to this report.