A North Carolina man was arrested in a “road rage encounter” that killed a mother of six who was on an anniversary trip with her husband, authorities said Thursday.
The man, Dejywan R. Floyd, 29, was arrested in an apartment in Lumberton, North Carolina, early Thursday, the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Floyd was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Julie Eberly, 47, of Manheim, Pennsylvania, and with discharging a weapon into an occupied property.
Floyd was booked into the Robeson County Detention Center without bond. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
The shooting took place before noon March 25. Police said officers were dispatched to a report of a person shot on Interstate 95 in Lumberton, about 125 miles from Charlotte.
When officers, state troopers and sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found that Eberly had been shot through the passenger door of the GMC Yukon that her husband, Ryan Eberly, had been driving, according to the sheriff’s office.
Media Release Monday, March 29, 2021 Robeson County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s assistance in the...
Posted by Robeson County Sheriff's Office on Monday, March 29, 2021
Julie Eberly was taken to a medical center in Lumberton, where she later died. Ryan Eberly was not injured.
The police investigation found that a “road rage encounter unknowingly developed” after the couple’s SUV came close to Floyd’s Chevrolet Malibu during a merge from one lane to another, according to the sheriff’s office.
“Regardless of the circumstances, no one deserved to be murdered while traveling our nation's highways."
Investigators said Floyd then moved to the passenger side of the SUV, lowered his window “and fired multiple shots into the passenger door.”
Witnesses told investigators the driver then drove off and exited at Exit 22, police said. The Eberlys pulled over on the interstate and waited for medical assistance.
Using surveillance footage from dozens of local businesses and residents, investigators were able to track Floyd’s path before and after the shooting, Sheriff Burnis Wilkins of Robeson County said in the statement. His office said the investigation was continuing.
“Regardless of the circumstances, no one deserved to be murdered while traveling our nation’s highways,” Wilkins said.
The couple had been traveling to celebrate their seventh anniversary that week, according to an online obituary for Julie Eberly. They were on their way to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for a getaway, Wilkins said.
