A man known for outing suspected drug dealers was fatally shot Monday as he recorded a Facebook Live video in Wingate, North Carolina, the Daily News reported.
The man, identified by relatives and officials as Prentis Robinson, 55, was recording a video with a selfie stick when he was shot four times by an unknown suspect. The video has since been removed from Robinson’s Facebook page.
Minutes before being shot, Robinson had been at the police station to report a stolen cell phone. He confronted the shooter as he was approached.
“You on Live,” Robinson told the man repeatedly.
According to the Daily News, police and the FBI were still searching for the suspect hours after the shooting.
“It’s very concerning that just a block away from the police department, that something like this would happen,” Wingate Police Chief Donnie Gay said.
Robinson, whose Facebook says he was a musician and includes many videos of him singing and playing guitar, was known for outing and reporting suspected drug dealers in the neighborhood via live streams, according to Fox 46 News.
Multiple sources tell me the victim (Prentis Robinson) in the Wingate shooting had been outing people on Facebook Live who were suspected drug dealers in the neighborhood. Victim was shot, killed while on Facebook Live — minutes after visiting the Police Department. @FOX46News pic.twitter.com/S8qKpseADt
— David Sentendrey (@DavidSFOX4) February 26, 2018
His cousin, 46-year-old Walter Rorie, remembered Robinson as a “laid-back person, friendly to everybody.”
“We don’t understand why somebody would want to do this, but that’s what they did,” Rorio said.
In April, Cleveland man Steve Stephens shot and killed Robert Godwin Sr., 74, and posted a video of the killing to Facebook before fatally shooting himself.
Facebook, which in May said it would hire 3,000 people to monitor and remove violent videos, has not commented on Robinson’s death.
H/T Daily News