Brandy Nicole Olson

Brandy Nicole Olson, a 42-year-old White woman from Lumberton, North Carolina, was looking forward to a Christmas beach trip with her boyfriend, Orlando Farrington. On the afternoon of December 20, 2024, she went into the Walmart Supercenter on Fayetteville Road to make a deposit for the trip at the Woodforest National Bank located inside the store. Friends and family remembered her as a beloved employee at a local Ruby Tuesdays, where they would later gather to mourn her.

At approximately 3:45 p.m., while Olson was waiting in line at the bank, gunshots rang out. Farrington, who was waiting outside, saw shoppers running from the store in a panic. He rushed inside to find Olson, but only realized she was the victim when he saw her being brought to an ambulance. Bystanders had tried to perform life-saving measures on Olson, who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. She was transported to UNC Health Southeastern, where she was pronounced dead.

Investigators from several agencies, including the Lumberton Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, determined that the shooting was an isolated incident. They believed the shooters had targeted two other individuals they knew who were also in line at the bank, and that Olson was an innocent bystander struck by the gunfire. The suspects fled the scene immediately after the shooting.

Authorities quickly identified two teenage suspects from Lumberton. Ezekiel Burden, 17, was charged with first-degree murder, discharging a firearm within an enclosure to incite fear, and going armed to the terror of the people. Brian Campbell, 18, was charged with accessory after the fact. On December 23, 2024, Campbell turned himself in to the Lumberton Police Department and was detained at the Robeson County Detention Center under a $1,000,000 bond.

Burden remained at large for a month, with authorities offering a reward for information leading to his arrest. On January 21, 2025, acting on a tip from an informant, the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force apprehended Burden at a Greyhound bus station in Chicago, Illinois. He was extradited to Robeson County, North Carolina, to face charges. During a court appearance on January 29, 2025, a judge denied him bond.