CARTHAGE, N.C., March 30 (UPI) -- The alleged shooter in a North Carolina nursing home massacre was being transferred Monday to a different hospital for surgery, an official said.
The man, identified as Robert Stewart, 45, of Moore County, N.C., charged with the shotgun slayings of eight people in a Carthage nursing home Sunday night, was been taken from a local hospital to another in Wake County, N.C., for medical and security reasons, the area's state lawmaker told the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer.
"This is a tragedy beyond comprehension for Moore County," state Sen. Harris Blake told the newspaper. "I was told (Stewart) would be moved to Wake County. He is going to have to have some surgery. Apparently, he got hit with some bullets."
Seven elderly patients and an attendant at Pinelake Health and Rehab were killed in the rampage before the suspect was shot by a police officer. A man injured by a shotgun blast, Micheal Cotten, 53, told the News & Observer that Stewart fired at him as he pulled into the nursing home's parking lot.
A neighbor of Stewart's parents told the newspaper the alleged shooter's estranged wife works as a certified nurse assistant at Pinelake.
