Investigators are working to determine what led to the deaths of two women at this home near Red Springs Wednesday evening. | Abbi Overfelt | Civitas Media

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Abbi Overfelt

Civitas Media

RED SPRINGS — A quiet Wednesday evening on a Robeson County road quickly plunged into chaos when two women were killed and two men seriously injured, local business owners say.

Clifford Williams Jr. was cutting hair at Red Barn Barbershop on N.C. 211 near Red Springs when a woman he’d never seen before ran into the business with “blood on her face and a gun in her hand” and called for help.

“She was screaming, ‘He’s killed everyone in the house,’” said Anthony Williams, Clifford’s brother and the shop’s co-owner.

The dead, according to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, are 59-year-old Kathy Bullard, who owned the home at 12156 N.C. 211 West, just one door down from the barbershop; and 55-year-old Donna Matteson, the mother of a Joseph Matteson, 31, whose 24-year-old wife Kendra was staying with Bullard following the couple’s break-up.

In a statement, Sealey said Joseph Matteson shot his mother, Bullard, and her son, 28-year-old Mark Anthony Bullard, stopping only when he ran out of ammunition. He then chased Kendra outside the home, where Mark Anthony Bullard and a family friend “took him down and a struggle ensued,” leaving Joseph Matteson with severe head injuries.

Randall Graham, spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office, said that Joseph Matteson is on life support, “making questioning difficult.”

Williams said he and his brother followed Matteson out of the shop and when they got outside, they saw a man lying partially in the road and another standing over him, first kicking, and then pistol-whipping him. Williams said that people driving by were slowing down to look and to avoid the scene, leading two cars to collide.

“It was chaotic out here,” Williams said. “… It was shocking, something like this happening so close.”

According to Sealey, Kendra Matteson called the Sheriff’s Office from Bullard’s home at about 5:30 p.m. and said her husband was outside the home with a handgun and was threatening to kill her. She called back a few minutes later and said shots had been fired, he said.

When deputies arrived at the home, they found Donna Matteson shot to death and lying in the front yard and Bullard lying dead inside the home, Sealey said. Joseph Matteson and Mark Anthony Bullard were each taken to Southeastern Regional Medical Center by ambulance and later airlifted to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, Sealey said.

Sealey said a 9-year-old child was found inside a car outside of the home and a 1-year-old was inside the home in a crib. He said both children were Kendra’s. They were uninjured.

Sealey said that Kendra Matteson had “left” Joseph Matteson and their home at 2675 Calloway Road in Raeford, and had been staying with Kathy Bullard for a few days.

Abbi Ovefelt works for Civitas Media as editor of The St. Pauls Review and The Red Springs Citizen.