A weekend of violence that authorities have described as a murder-suicide that extended from a mobile home park in the Wilson County part of Sharpsburg to a residence in northeastern Nash County has resulted in the loss of a 6-year-old girl’s life.
Zoey Jones, who was among the shooting victims injured early Sunday morning in Weaver Estates, died Monday, the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office said. She was the daughter of DaQuan Jones, 32, who authorities said shot himself later Sunday in a residence off Jamie Road after allegedly fleeing the scene of the shooting in Sharpsburg.
The child’s mother, Kiera Massenburg, 27, was found dead in the vehicle Jones had been driving, the Nash County Sheriff’s Office has said.
Additionally, judicial system records in the Twin Counties show domestic violence-related cases involving DaQuan Jones and Massenburg on file at the courthouses in Tarboro and Nashville.
Specifically, judicial system records showed Monday that, the day before the purported murder-suicide, Jones had been released on bond from the Edgecombe County Detention Center, this after Rocky Mount police had accused him less than a month earlier of having attacked Massenburg.
Jones was charged in the police case with having committed felony assault inflicting seriously bodily injury in a July 15 incident in which he allegedly punched Massenburg in the face, knocking out her teeth and fracturing her nose, according to N.C. District Court records at the courthouse in Tarboro.
A secured bond for Jones was set at $35,000 by a judicial official, the records state. The conditions of his release on bond specified he was not to assault, harass or threaten Massenburg or be in Massenburg’s presence, the records state.
Rocky Mount police also had arrested Jones and had charged him with communicating threats to Massenburg, engaging in disorderly conduct and resisting a public officer on Nov. 10, 2023, according to records that the Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office provided Monday about that case. Specifically, the records stated that Jones told Massenburg that, “I’m gonna hurt you.”
Jones yelled loudly, threatened the mother of his child in the presence of law enforcement and pulled away from a city police officer, the records state.
Jones entered an Alford plea Feb. 12 to having engaged in disorderly conduct, statewide judicial system records online showed Monday. An Alford plea generally means a person charged with a crime can maintain innocence but is treated as guilty by the court.
The sentencing included Jones having been placed on a year and a half of unsupervised probation, according to judicial system records.
A condition of the sentencing included that Jones was not to assault, harass or threaten Massenburg, the records state.
N.C. District Court records on file at the courthouse in Nashville showed Tuesday that Jones in September 2019 had been sentenced to two years under supervised probation for having committed assault on a female and common law false imprisonment.
The records in that case state that Jones punched Massenburg and restrained her by taking her in a vehicle without her consent in October 2018.
Additionally, N.C. Superior Court records on file at the courthouse in Nashville Tuesday showed that a grand jury in September 2021 had indicted Jones on charges of assault by strangulation and assault on a female.
According to the records in that case, Rocky Mount police had accused Jones of using his hands to squeeze Massenburg’s throat, to the point she was unable to breathe, in June 2020.
A trial had been set to occur, but the District Attorney’s Office in August 2022 dismissed that case due to an inability to find Massenburg and because multiple subpoenas had been returned as unserved, the records said.
The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office, in a news release Sunday about the murder-suicide case, has said that Sharpsburg police officers and Wilson County deputies responded around 5 a.m. Sunday to the 100 block of Weaver’s Circle about a report of a shooting involving multiple victims.
Two people found to have been injured by the gunfire were said to have been friends of Jones and Massenburg, the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office said in an updated news release Monday. Devonte Ricks, 30, of Edgecombe County, was in critical condition but stable, while Makyah Page, 27, of Sharpsburg, was recovering, the updated news release said.
Investigators allege that Jones was suspected in the shooting and that he fled the scene and dropped off his injured child at a residence in Nash County. Detectives also said they learned that Jones was at a residence off Jamie Road.
Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone, who spoke Tuesday at the Rocky Mount Rotary Club’s weekly luncheon, as part of his remarks said that Jones’ family had told him, “We tried to get him help.”
The problem, Stone told the luncheon gathering, is that such help is not available. Stone referred to the shutdowns of the Dorothea Dix and Cherry state psychiatric hospitals, with North Carolinians having said they favored privatization.
“Well, privatization has not worked,” Stone said.
Stone said that residents are being put at risk, and he spoke of the potential risk Sunday had the vehicle Jones had been driving ended up in a wreck.
Regarding the information that Jones had been in and out of jails, Stone said, “Our jail is not designed for mental health.”
Stone said that he believes the Nash County Detention Center should be for corrections cases and for taking dangerous criminals off the streets.
“We’ve got to do a better job in North Carolina with mental health,” he said.
Wilson County Sheriff Calvin Woodard, in prepared remarks Monday, said that an incident like this is disheartening to the community and to the families that are going to endure this pain for the rest of their lives.
“This does not make any sense when you see someone who could’ve taken a second chance in life to change his behavior,” Woodard said of Jones.
“Prayers definitely go out to the family as the system needs to work more to protect innocent people from gun violence,” Woodard said.
Edgecombe County Sheriff Clee Atkinson, in an interview at his office Monday, said that he is praying for all the families involved.
“These victims didn’t deserve this,” Atkinson said. “And definitely the families don’t deserve this hurt and pain.”
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