Authorities say a dispute over furniture Tuesday evening ended in gunfire, leaving one hospitalized and another behind bars.
Thus far, Vestal Ray Hensley, 31, of Burnsville has been charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. He was taken into custody in lieu of a $20,000 bond.
“The investigation is ongoing,” said Capt. Shanon Smith of the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office. “We are still trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting.”
Smith stated that investigators were called to The McDowell Hospital around 6 p.m. Tuesday in reference to a man suffering from a gunshot wound.
The victim, 31-year-old Roy Dean Owens of Boxwood Drive in Old Fort, was later airlifted to Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville, where he remained a patient in the neurotrauma intensive care unit Wednesday. An official report was not available from the hospital, but detectives said he was serious condition.
Hensley, Owens and some other people were at a residence on Paradise Circle in Nebo, the home of Hensley’s girlfriend, Tuesday. The suspect and victim began arguing over furniture, according to the captain.
Hensley brandished a .22-caliber handgun and shot Owens once in his abdomen and once in his upper chest, Smith stated.
Agents with the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation are aiding sheriff’s deputies with the case.
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