Gabriel Ennis, 16, a White male from Ellerbe, North Carolina, was shot on June 22, 2025, at a home on Wallace Road just outside town limits. Deputies with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office responded and confirmed his death at the scene as the community awoke to the news that a local teenager had been killed.
Friends and neighbors knew Ennis as a junior firefighter with Cordova Fire & Rescue, a role he had embraced since he was fourteen.
In the days after his death, his department and loved ones described a young man devoted to service and dreaming of a future in the fire service, the kind of recruit any station would be proud to mentor.
Investigators later announced an arrest: a 17-year-old Richmond Senior High School student turned themselves in and was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting. Because of the suspect’s age, authorities did not release a name. The juvenile is being held without bond, and investigators have not publicly disclosed what led up to the shooting, noting that the case remains open while they continue to gather information.
As summer moved on, the family channeled grief into action, organizing a community back-to-school drive in Ennis’s honor—a gesture reflecting the generosity they said defined him and the impact he left behind. The memorial efforts underscored the loss felt across Richmond County’s emergency services and among classmates who remembered his easy humor and willingness to help.
