Jamar Brooks Hailey, a 43-year-old Black male from Aberdeen, North Carolina, died on Sunday night, March 29, 2026, in a double shooting in the Jackson Hamlet community near Pinehurst. Hailey had been born in Moore County on October 18, 1982, to George Hailey and Debora Blue Hailey, and he was remembered by those who knew him as someone who smiled often, loved driving, played cards and basketball, enjoyed gaming, and took pride in his work with Pinehurst Detailing.
The shooting unfolded
around 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Gaines Street, near N.C. Highway 5, between Aberdeen and Pinehurst. Moore County sheriff’s deputies responded after reports of gunfire and arrived to find two men suffering from gunshot wounds at a home in the 100 block of Gaines Street. Hailey and 41-year-old Antonio Jamal Brown of Raeford were both pronounced dead at the scene. Some reports described the men as being found in a yard, while another described them as being on the front porch, but all accounts placed the fatal attack at the same Gaines Street residence in Jackson Hamlet.
Investigators quickly treated the case as a double homicide. Deputies and investigators remained in the area after the shooting, and law enforcement was seen using K-9s to search nearby woods. Authorities said the preliminary investigation suggested the shooting was not random and that the person involved was believed to have known the victims. The Moore County Sheriff’s Office said a person of interest had been identified, but that individual had not been located at the time of the public updates.
As of the available reports, no arrest had been announced in Hailey’s death, no suspect had been publicly named, and no charges, trial, or conviction had been reported. The sheriff’s office said the investigation remained active, with a continued law enforcement presence in the Jackson Hamlet community, and autopsies were expected for both Hailey and Brown. The case remained unresolved in the public record, centered on a known but unnamed person of interest who investigators were still trying to locate.
