Suspect dies in shootout after killing 2

MOORESVILLE — A suspect in a weekend shooting that killed two people and injured a third died in a shootout with Iredell County sheriff’s deputies hours afterward outside another house, a sheriff said Sunday.

Justin Michael Strawser was wearing a bulletproof vest and firing at deputies when he was killed in the shootout Saturday outside a home in Mooresville, Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said in a social media post. The deputies and four minor children inside the home with Strawser weren’t hurt, he added.

Deputies had responded to a call about shots fired at another Mooresville home, where they discovered two people dead in the house and a third critically injured on the back porch. All three were found bound, and the third was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, the sheriff said.

The sheriff’s office said Strawser and the three who were shot knew each other, so it wasn’t a random home invasion. Narcotics and robbery are possible motives, the office added.

Information about Strawser led deputies to approach the second home, where Strawser barricaded himself inside and began firing at them with the AR-15, the sheriff said.

With the house surrounded, sheriff’s office negotiators tried to get Strawser to come out, Campbell said. They also learned the four juveniles were inside, but the minors were uncooperative and refused rescue attempts.

Authorities said some of the bullets fired by Strawser hit sheriff’s office vehicles. Strawser also told negotiators about his involvement in the deadly incident at the other house, the sheriff said.

Deputies then used tear gas, spurring the children to flee the house.

Strawser exited after them, wearing the bulletproof vest and firing at the deputies, Campbell said. Deputies returned fire, killing Strawser, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

The State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting. Three deputies were placed on administrative leave under the sheriff’s office’s standard policy.

The people killed at the first house were identified as men ages 22 and 24.