NEWTON, N.C. (AP) – When Jefferson Heavner heard a car was stuck in the snow near where he grew up, he and three friends hopped in his pickup truck to help – something he’d done since he was a boy riding along with his father.
But his offer of help turned into a deadly encounter, authorities say: An intoxicated man who had spun out became belligerent after bystanders decided to call police instead of pushing his car out. He knocked Heavner down with a bullet and then stood over him, firing several more shots.
Jessica Heavner said her brother was carrying on a tradition in Friday’s snowstorm started by their father, who died in a car crash 13 years ago.
“We always had some type of 4-wheel drive vehicle, and we would go out and look for people who had spun out in the ditches,” Jessica Heavner said, recalling snowstorms when she was growing up. “It was something we always did to help out people in the community.”
Sheriff Coy Reid has said Marvin Jacob Lee, 27, was stuck on the side of the road, and those helping him could tell he was drunk or on drugs. Jessica Heavner, who has spoken to witnesses and investigators, said several neighbors had also come out to help, and one of them tried to take Lee’s keys away.