Joey Eric Partlow, 42, was shot and killed in the early morning of June 6, 2021, in the parking lot of Zion Hills Apartments in Salisbury. Police responded to a shots fired call about 3:40 a.m.; Partlow suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities said he and the shooter were not strangers, but did not immediately release further details about their relationship.

Partlow was a supervisor with Chartwell Dining Services at Catawba College for fifteen years. He was born May 17, 1979, and is survived by his parents, Debra Reid Dalton and Phil Caldwell, his children Logan Partlow and Paris Logan, and other family members. Funeral services were held June 14, 2021, with burial at Oakwood Cemetery.

A 19-year-old man named Shane Kamel Charles was arrested in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and taken into custody by the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation in connection with the killing; police said no additional suspects were being sought. What details about motive and the circumstances leading up to the shooting remain unclear to readers with information about Joey or that night?