(UPDATED 5:45 p.m.) Greene County Sheriff's Office deputy killed in line of duty

According to multiple media sources, a Greene County deputy has been killed in the line of duty.

Greene County Sheriff Lemmie Smith told Wes Goforth of WCTI ABC-12 that Deputy John Willis responded to a domestic disturbance call. The suspect was drunk and irate, shot the deputy and then shot himself.

This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the night.

UPDATE 11:35 P.M.: Free Press crime reporter Wesley Brown is at the scene of the double shooting on Estuary Drive, which is in Greene County near the Wayne County border off U.S. 13.

Neighbors say three shots were fired around 8:30 p.m. The male suspect, who neighbors call "Dee," killed Willis before turning his gun on himself.

UPDATE 1:45 A.M.: SNOW HILL - A murder-suicide that happened in Greene County Wednesday night outside the Shine community resulted in a Greene County deputy killed from an assailant that immediately turned the gun on himself.

Greene County Sheriff Lemmie Smith told Wes Goforth of WCTI ABC-12 that Deputy John Willis responded to a domestic disturbance call at a home in the Brooke Meadow Mobile Home Park off U.S. 13 near the Wayne County border.

Upon arriving at the scene, the resident, a drunk and irate male known to neighbors as "Dee," shot the deputy twice and then immediately ended his own life in his bedroom.

Neighbors of the assailant, who sat outside the man’s home on Estuary Drive, say they heard three shots around 8:30 p.m. 

“This is shocking,” said 15-year-old Da’Shon Boseman, who lives three doors down from the assailant’s home. “He was a nice guy and it is hard to see this happening to him. I hung out with him yesterday, the day he had a new born, and he was celebrating with his first child, a 1-year-old.”

Two teenage brothers, 18-year-old Ryan Aytch and his 17-year-old brother Rodney, sat in front of “Dee’s” home before the shooting.

 “We were sitting and talking on the green light box in front of his house and then when we decided to go inside, we heard three shots sound and then we walked towards his house,” Ryan Aytch said. 

Moments after the double shooting officials with the Greene County Sheriff’s office made it to the scene. The N.C. Highway Patrol and State Bureau of Investigation, as well as the Greene County EMC, Snow Hill Police Department and Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, assisted in controlling the scene.

The Greene County Courthouse had more than two dozen people stationed outside its doors waiting for new developments until past 1 a.m. 

“I was not nervous when I heard the shots, but it does make me think twice about what people can do,” Rodney Aytch said.

Willis, 30, reportedly had two children.

UPDATE 7:30 A.M.: Media outlets are reporting that the man's name who killed Willis is Daniel Myers, a 22-year-old.

UPDATE 11:30 A.M.: Sheriff Lemmie Smith told The Free Press that Willis responded to a domestic disturbance call that came from 89 Brooke Place in the Shine community of Greene County at 7:42 p.m. Wednesday. The domestic dispute is believed to be between Myers and his sister, who wasn't at the residence when Willis arrived.

Willis entered the home and Myers was in the bedroom. Myers came out of the bedroom, firing shots at Willis, fatally wounding the deputy. Myers went back into the bedroom, where he shot himself, committing suicide.

Willis joined the Greene County Sheriff's Office in 2001, but left for a job in the Winterville Police Department. He returned to the GCSO in April.

UPDATE 1:30 P.M.: Sheriff Lemmie Smith told The Free Press that Willis entered the house and shouted Myers' name. On hearing his name, Myers came out of the bedroom shooting with a handgun. Willis was shot three times and was fatally wounded.

Smith said Myers did not have a conviction record in Greene County, but he believed Myers did have a record elsewhere.

"He was a quiet man until you got to know him," Sheriff Smith said of Willis. "He did his job well and was very professional. It's just a tragic thing."

 UPDATE 5:45 P.M.: The N.C. Department of Correction listed Myers on its website as serving a 30-month probationary sentence on charges of felony assault inflicting serious injury, communicating threats and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors. Myers had a probation completion date of September 2011.