Donald Charles Owens III, a 29-year-old African American man from Fayetteville, North Carolina, was shot in the parking lot of the Coliseum Inn on Gillespie Street on the evening of April 24, 2022. The shooting occurred around 9 p.m.; Owens was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and died the next morning, April 25, 2022.

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office investigated and identified 28-year-old Damon Javone Ward of Fayetteville as a person of interest after an altercation in the motel parking lot that reportedly escalated into the shooting. Ward was later arrested on a first-degree murder warrant on November 4, 2022, while already in custody on unrelated charges and was being held without bail.

The sheriff’s office continues to investigate the circumstances of the fatal encounter. If anyone saw the altercation at the Coliseum Inn or has information about what led to the shooting, please come forward.