Mass shooting from boat at North Carolina bar

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Three people were killed and five wounded in Southport, N.C., on Saturday night when police say a gunman attacked a bar from the water, driving his boat up alongside an open-air dock-front bar and opening fire.

Nigel Edge was arrested Saturday on charges including first-degree murder in what police are calling a premeditated attack.

The suspect fled the scene, motoring his boat toward the Intracoastal Waterway. Half an hour after the shooting, at 10 p.m., "the Coast Guard observed a single individual matching the description of the shooter loading their boat at a public boat ramp," said Southport Police Chief Todd Coring.

The attack took place at the American Fish Company, a bar and live-music venue. Police are asking anyone who witnessed the shooting to contact them.

"A lot of the victims in this case appear to be not members of our community, but just people who were here on vacation," said local District Attorney Jon David. He said one of the wounded victims was "clinging for their life."

David said he arrived at the scene around 11 p.m. on Saturday and "saw with my own eyes the horror which has occurred in this case."

Officials said they believe the alleged gunman acted alone and that there is no ongoing safety threat. David said Edge was "known to law enforcement," but that there was "nothing significant in his past which would give us any indication that he was capable of such horror." State voter registration records list Edge as 41 years old.

Edge had changed his name from Sean Debevoise, according to Southport public information officer ChyAnn Ketchum, citing the district attorney's investigation.

The Defense Department confirmed in an email to NPR that Debevoise is a decorated combat veteran who served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006 was awarded a Purple Heart.

A person of the same name is listed as the author of a book about his time serving in the Marines in Iraq, and writes that he was badly wounded — shot four times, including once in the head, by friendly fire.

So far this year, there have been at least 324 mass shootings in the U.S., according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive — that is, shootings where at least four people were killed or wounded.

Police described the shooter's weapon as an assault rifle