A 32-year-old Black veteran and father of three was shot and killed in Fayetteville, North Carolina, this week after a road rage confrontation with a white father and son riding in a pickup truck ended with the motorcyclist being shot in his chest.
Stephen Addison was shot by 51-year-old Roger Dale Nobles Sr. as the biker argued with Roger Dale Nobles Jr. on Monday, Jan. 3.
Police state Nobles Sr. fired at Addison from the driver’s seat on the inside of his 1992 Chevrolet pickup after his son got out of the vehicle at a stoplight to confront Addison.
A bystander shot a video of the confrontation and sent it to local station WRAL. Shot from a distance, the footage only shows Noble Jr. standing outside of the passenger side of the truck and then walking toward Addison. The two appear to be arguing when the shotgun blast comes from the pickup. The video does not record the argument.
After Addison falls to the ground from the blast, Nobles Jr. walks away without assisting him.
Police and Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies later located Nobles Sr. at his home. After presenting him with a warrant, he and his son were apprehended. Nobles Sr. admitted to the shooting Addison, authorities say.
One neighbor said, “They put them in handcuffs, and then it went from there. They started searching the truck.”
The older Nobles was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, but the son was released without any charges.
The outlet reports that Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West is looking at the evidence and is open to a possible hate crime consideration.
After reviewing the six-minute exchange between Addison and Nobles Jr. and analyzing the son’s body language, two security analysts offered to the station that Nobles may have known that his dad planned to use the weapon.
Anthony Waddy of SAV Consulting said, “Where he’s actually standing in reference to, what we call in the military, a fatal funnel. He’s clearly out of harm’s way.”
The analyst says it appears that Nobles Jr. created a clear path for the shot to strike Addison, noting that even after the shot the son did not flinch. Moreover, after the man fell to the ground, Waddy asserts the son did not turn as if surprised that his father fired his gun at the man.
Addison’s friends and family members are still trying to process the loss of their loved one amid the outpouring of condolences from the community.
Justina Hemphill, the wife of the former Fort Bragg soldier, while reflecting on Addison’s life to WRAL said that he was a “great guy” and his personality “lit up every room he went into.”
“[He was] a loving, caring guy for anybody. He stayed out the way [and] was never in anybody’s business,” Buddy Justin Cockrell said, adding, “There won’t be one bad word spoken about Stephen.”
“It’s just senseless. It’s 2022, and we’re still talking about road rage, I mean, come on. I lost my brother, for what?” the friend concluded.
At the intersection of his demise, the community has set up a memorial dressed in pictures, candles, and tokens of care.
Nobles Sr. remains in the Cumberland County jail without bond as police ask the community for additional footage.
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