Bruce McLeod, 33, of Laurinburg, North Carolina, was shot and killed in an early morning incident at Island Flava Restaurant and Lounge on Owen Drive in Fayetteville on October 17, 2021. The shooting followed a parking-lot altercation around 3 a.m. that had briefly been broken up by an off-duty Fayetteville police officer working security. McLeod was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and pronounced dead; another man, Gavin Hale, was shot in the right arm and survived after the off-duty officer applied a tourniquet.

Authorities arrested 33-year-old Cornelius Davis Jr., also of Laurinburg, charging him with first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, and possession of a firearm by a felon; U.S. Marshals apprehended him shortly after 5 a.m. in Saint Pauls and he was held in the Cumberland County jail without bail. A second defendant, 26-year-old Jalen Rashad Everett, was charged with accessory after the fact of first-degree murder; court documents allege Everett arranged a getaway vehicle after the shooting. Reports say Davis struck McLeod, left in a black Cadillac Escalade with Everett, then returned, blocked McLeod and Hale’s path with the vehicle, and opened fire, striking McLeod in the chest.

McLeod’s death was recorded as Fayetteville’s 34th homicide investigation of 2021. If anyone has information about the events that night or knew McLeod, please come forward to help clarify what happened.