Sheriff: Man kills 2 young sons, shoots self, lives

STATESVILLE, N.C. -- The sheriff in Iredell County, N.C., says a father shot and killed his 3-year-old and 4-year-old sons before turning the gun on himself.

Sheriff Darren Campbell said 31-year-old Shawn Fuller killed his two sons before attempting suicide. He was flown to Carolinas Medical Center Main with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Authorities were called to a home on Trent Road, just east of Statesville, around 3:30 a.m. Investigators originally said they were responding to a domestic violence call.

The caller said a man was firing a weapon and was intoxicated.

When deputies arrived they found Fuller outside the front door with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Campbell said Fuller had been drinking and got into an altercation with the boys' mother, WSOC-TV reports. She fled the house, and that's when the sheriff said Fuller shot the two boys.

Deputies said they found the brothers in the living room.

Neighbors were stunned by the deaths.

"What?? You've got to be killing me, those little boys. Good God of mercy," neighbor Delmas Smarl said.

The sheriff has not released any further information surrounding this case.