A shooting that led to a crash on Interstate 77 in Mooresville on Sunday may have resulted from an obsessive, “tumultuous” relationship between a couple linked to multiple domestic incidents, police said on Tuesday.
Mooresville Police responded to a reported shooting at the Exit 35 ramp around 5 p.m. Sunday. When officers arrived, they found two people suffering from gunshot wounds. Both victims were rushed to area hospitals for treatment. Investigators determined that all of the shots fired came from inside the vehicle, squashing rumors that the real shooter is on the loose.
Mooresville police said on Wednesday that Justice Wells, the 19-year-old female victim, died from injuries suffered in the shooting. J’Kobe Tre’shon Ramseur, 23, of Hickory, was initially charged with attempted murder, but the charges have been upgraded to murder with the Wells’ death.
Police debunked rumors of a second vehicle being involved. Campurciani clarified that there was no red pickup truck involved, despite social media rumors suggesting that the person was connected to the shooting. Mooresville detectives contacted the owner of the truck seen in photos and determined the owner, who lives in South Carolina, wasn’t linked to the incident.
“This was not a drive-by shooting, this was a domestic incident that may very well turn into a murder-suicide,” Mooresville Police Chief Ron Campurciani said.
Investigators said the couple had a “tumultuous” relationship with reports of multiple domestic incidents in surrounding counties.
Campurciani said the investigation uncovered a series of text messages with a potential murder-suicide pact between the couple. The messages stopped about two hours before the shooting. “A whole bunch of text messages, starting at midnight and going through the night,” Campurciani said. “He texted her, talked about a murder-suicide pact and kept pressuring her to pick him up.”
Campurciani said Ramseur has been connected to crimes in surrounding counties. Detectives have a warrant for his arrest, but it hasn’t been served because he remains hospitalized.
“It’s a shame,” Campurciani said. “He was obviously obsessed with her. It’s pretty clear from text messages we’ve seen. He didn’t say this, but I think we can fill in the blanks that, ‘If I can’t have you, nobody can,’ that type of thing.”
WCNC