On the night of September 3, 2024, at about 10:27 p.m., deputies responded to a 911 report of a shooting in the 3000 block of Sanderosa Road in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Responding officers found 46-year-old Dealton Thaggard with gunshot wounds; he was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center and pronounced dead. Witnesses said an individual entered a gathering on Sanderosa Road and began firing indiscriminately at attendees, leaving shell casings in the road.

In the days after the shooting, investigators named 25-year-old Cartier Savon Simpson of Fayetteville as a person of interest and sought him for questioning. On October 18, 2024, homicide detectives served a secure custody order charging a juvenile with first-degree murder in connection with Thaggard’s death; authorities have withheld identifying details because of the charged person’s age. The juvenile is in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office Homicide Unit at 910-321-6592 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 910-483-8477. Did anyone at the party or in the neighborhood see something that could help the investigation?