By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- A grand jury indicted North Carolina State Highway Patrol Sgt. Nekime Oxendine on first-degree murder charges Wednesday in the March 27 shooting death of Cumberland County Sheriff’s Capt. Adam David Bean.
- Both men were off duty; the shooting followed a personal dispute involving a woman who had been in relationships with both men and who also works for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.
- The woman told investigators Bean approached Oxendine’s vehicle outside her home and continued advancing after Oxendine fired two warning shots into the ground.
- Oxendine, an 18-year Highway Patrol veteran, was placed on administrative leave following the shooting; the State Bureau of Investigation handled the case.
- Bean, 42, had served with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office for nearly two decades and was the agency’s assistant chief of detectives.
CUMBERLAND COUNTY, N.C. — A North Carolina state trooper was indicted Wednesday on a first-degree murder charge in the March shooting death of a Cumberland County sheriff’s captain, following a monthslong State Bureau of Investigation probe into the off-duty confrontation between the two men.
A grand jury charged Sgt. Nekime Oxendine, an 18-year veteran of the State Highway Patrol, in the March 27 death of Capt. Adam David Bean, 42, the sheriff’s office’s assistant chief of detectives. Oxendine was placed on administrative leave following the shooting, according to patrol spokesperson Lt. Chris Knox.
Cumberland County officials said at the time that the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute between two off-duty officers, identifying a woman at the center of the dispute as a domestic violence victim. The woman, who also works for the sheriff’s office and is the sister of State Highway Patrol Col. Freddy Johnson Jr., is not being named because she is an alleged victim.
According to search warrants in the case, the woman had dated Oxendine before entering a long-term relationship with Bean, then later reconciled with Oxendine. Text messages cited in the warrants show tension among the three in the years and weeks leading up to the shooting, including messages in which Oxendine expressed concern that Bean continued to have influence in the woman’s life.
According to the warrants, Bean asked to meet with the woman at his house the night of the shooting; she initially agreed, then stopped responding. When Bean said he was waiting outside and would “make a scene,” the woman told investigators she came outside and saw both Bean and Oxendine present. She told investigators Bean “exited his vehicle and moved aggressively toward Oxendine,” and that Oxendine fired two warning shots into the ground before firing additional shots as Bean continued advancing. Bean collapsed in the front yard and later died.
The woman called 911 at 10:52 p.m., but the call ended before dispatchers could gather full details. A responding sergeant arrived roughly two minutes later and found the woman performing CPR on Bean.
The case remains under review; further court proceedings had not been scheduled as of Wednesday.