Justin Michael Aiken, a 21-year-old male from Hickory, North Carolina, was tragically murdered on April 7, 2017. Born on May 18, 1995, in Jackson County, North Carolina, Justin was a member of the Christ United Methodist Church in Mountain View and a 2013 graduate of Bunker Hill High School. At the time of his death, he was attending Cape Fear Community College.
Justin was survived by his father, Craig Douglass Aiken, his stepfather, Joshua Carden, his brother, Chance Carden, and his grandmother, Sally Wright.
The fatal incident occurred in the parking lot of McCroskey’s Irish Pub and Grill in Hickory. Justin, along with two other victims, Quajuae Alexus Kennedy and Cody Manood Bouphavong, both 21 years old, were shot and killed. A fourth victim, 20-year-old Cole Brady Ervin, was also shot and injured during the attack. The victims were inside a Honda Accord when they were ambushed by two men, Greydon Keith Hansen and Dontray Tyrell Cumberlander, who fired multiple shots into the vehicle.
Hansen and Cumberlander, both 28 years old at the time of their sentencing, were arrested and charged with three counts of second-degree murder, one count of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, and one count of discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle. They pleaded guilty to these charges in Catawba County Superior Court on August 12, 2021. The court sentenced them to prison terms of 64 to 82 years each, ensuring they would spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The investigation revealed that the suspects had driven around the parking lot of the pub in a Ford Fusion, with one of them hanging out of the passenger window holding an assault rifle. They approached the victims' vehicle from behind and began firing into the car. Witnesses at the scene and a cellphone video of the shooting helped identify the suspects and their vehicle. During their arrest, the suspects admitted to their involvement in the shooting, and investigators recovered multiple shell casings and firearms from the scene and the suspects' vehicle.
The sentencing of Hansen and Cumberlander brought some closure to the victims' families, although the pain and sorrow caused by the senseless killings remain. The court acknowledged that no punishment could bring back the young lives lost or heal the deep wounds inflicted on their families. However, the lengthy prison terms were intended to protect the community from further violent acts by the defendants.
