Shootings On Same Street Leave 2 Dead And 3 Injured In North Carolina

Two men died and three people were wounded in a series of shootings in North Carolina Saturday night that left the alleged gunman dead and injured two police officers.

As many as seven officers exchanged fire with a man officials said held a shotgun and wore a pistol at a street intersection in Gastonia. The armed man was killed and two cops, both men, were injured by gunshots to their lower extremities, according to Gaston County Assistant Police Chief Joseph Ramey.

An investigation is underway to determine what connections, if any, exist between shootings in two homes on the same street that took place before police encountered the suspect outdoors.

Police had arrived after an emergency call from a person who said his father had been shot and that the gunman remained in his home, near the intersection. The man shot in the house was killed. (It was not immediately known how old the caller was or whether he lived in the same house as his father.)

Police received more 911 calls of an active shooter after the son called.

A woman in another house on the same street had a non-life threatening gunshot wound.

The Gaston County Police Department declined to comment to HuffPost on Sunday morning but said a statement would be available later in the day.

Police haven't identified the shooter or the victims, but witnesses told the Gaston Gazette that the shooter was a neighbor of the man he allegedly killed.

The officers involved in the shooting are on administrative leave while authorities review their use of force, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Gaston County Commissioner Tracy Philbock tweeted about the shooting.