UPDATE: Names of Men Involved in Carter Co. Shooting Released

UPDATE 5:00 p.m. //// Carter County Sheriff Chris Mathes released new information about the “homicide-suicide investigation” Friday afternoon.

“{We do believe there was} some question over a relationship with a female,“ Mathes said.  “So, we do think it was somewhat domestic-related—as well as a money issue.“

Mathes said Richardson and McKinney were longtime friends.

UPDATE 10:52 a.m. //// The names of the two victims of this morning’s shooting in Carter County have been identified as Grover E. Richardson, age 56, of 1180 Dry Creek Road, Elizabethton,  and the proposed shooter, Robert B. McKinney, age 40, 102 Rainbows End, Roan Mountain, Tenn.

The investigation is continuing.  Investigators are awaiting autopsy results from the James H. Quillen College of Medicine.

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Carter Co., Tenn.—Two men are dead in Carter County after an early morning shooting. The Sheriff’s Department believes the shooting to be a homicide-suicide.

The Carter County Sheriff’s Department was called to the scene on the 1000 block of Dry Creek Road at about 12:05 this morning. 11 Connects reporter Dana Wachter was at the scene just after 1:00 a.m. The road was blocked by sheriff’s deputies, because the scene was closed; one of the bodies was still in the road.

Sheriff Chris Mathes said that through preliminary investigations, it appears to be a homicide, and then a suicide. The two men had gunshot wounds.

At about 1:30 a.m., the coroner arrived, and he pronounced both men dead at the scene.

There were witnesses, but the sheriff’s department couldn’t elaborate on what they know, since it is so early.

Mathes said it is very evident that the men knew each other, but at this point in their investigation, they can’t say why the shootings took place.
“We’re exploring various motives for this,“ said Mathes, “and we think we’ll have a little bit more… We’re interviewing witnesses right now, talking to family members and so forth.“

Mathes said that now most of the family members have been notified, but he still couldn’t share the exact address, or the victims’ names.
There was a third person in question, but the sheriff has located that person, and they are safe.

The two bodies were taken to ETSU’s Quillen College of Medicine for autopsies.

UPDATE: Dry Creek Road IS now OPEN. It had been closed for investigation and clean-up earlier this morning.
 
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