Surveillance video footage shows the family visiting the sheriff's office shortly before the deadly shooting and fire. | Pixabay
Surveillance video footage shows the family visiting the sheriff's office shortly before the deadly shooting and fire. | Pixabay
Weeks after a murder-suicide in Davie County left four dead, the mother of the man suspected of being behind the tragedy spoke out about how mental illness had a strong grip on her son.
Between concussions and paranoia, Tiffany Meeks said her son Aschod Ewing-Meeks definitely struggled to maintain a normal life.
“I wanted to speak out and let you all know that my son was sick,” Meeks said during a press conference in Raleigh last week. “I tried to get assistance for him, I asked when I put him in the hospital last year.”
The Davie County Sheriff’s Office said Ewing-Meeks killed his family and set the home on fire last month. Meeks said her son was hospitalized last year due to issues like extreme paranoia, nightmares and other trauma. She said she has requested a CTE scan on her son to let an investigator discern any brain damage or dysfunction, but autopsy results have not been released.
The sheriff’s office has said that surveillance video showed the family walking into the sheriff’s office hours before the murder-suicide on April 18. Investigators said the family asked to speak to an officer but didn’t say why, the New York Post reported.
Thirty minutes later, Ashton Brown called 911 and mentioned safety concerns regarding Ewing-Meeks. An officer is said to have called back and spoken to the man four times over a 20-minute time frame, but no details of the content of those conversations have been made public.
Ewing-Meeks is said to have shot Ashton Brown, 26, and the couple’s two children, 4-year-old Bella and 8-month-old Brixx.