HALIFAX COUNTY (WSLS 10) - A Pepsi can laying on the ground marks where residents at the end of Epperson Lane say is the spot where a 44-year-old woman was shot in the chest at about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"I heard my dog barking and I heard a gunshot, so I come out and Wendy was on her knees at the pile of leaves and Alton had the gun drawn and was shooting at her," Virginia Fears recalled.
56-year-old Alton Beadles has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
The sheriff's office said after the shooting, Beadles waited at the scene for deputies to arrive.
"It's a tragic situation, but the silver lining is no one else was hurt and we made an arrest," said Halifax County Sheriff's Office Maj. Tommy Spencer.
Fears said after she saw what was going on, she yelled at Beadles to stop and he did, but she said he then went to the woods behind her home and tried to kill himself.
"My boyfriend went down to the woods and talked to him, took the gun away from him," explained Fears.
She said she has known Beadles and the woman who was shot nearly 50 years and never would have expected anything like this to happen.
Beadles and the victim were boyfriend and girlfriend and had been arguing prior to the shooting, according to the sheriff's office.
Jackie Leterman also lives at the end of Epperson Lane and said the two were good friends of his and they had actually stayed with him Tuesday.
"They come down to see my son down there and they needed a room to sleep in," said Leterman. "I told them they could sleep in the back room up there."
According to Fears and Leterman, after the woman was shot, she crawled into the corner of the shed outside their homes, which is where she died.
The sheriff's office did not release the woman's name on Thursday.