Shortly after 5:00 a.m. on Monday, December 22, 2025, deputies responded to a home in the 2500 block of Ardsley Drive in Northeast Durham and found 54-year-old John Edward Tyler inside the residence with fatal gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 50-year-old roommate, Joseph Donald Stevens, was at the property when officers arrived and reportedly admitted to shooting Tyler. Stevens was taken into custody without incident and charged with first-degree murder; he was booked into the Durham County Detention Facility and ordered held without bond. Officials described the shooting as an isolated incident between two people who lived together, and forensic teams were examining the scene.

What additional details about the relationship or motive would help explain why this confrontation turned deadly; anyone with information is asked to come forward.