As the Gateway Pundit reported over the weekend, a young man named Nigel Max Edge was arrested and charged with three counts of first degree murder after opening fire on the American Fish Company restaurant dock in the North Carolina coastal town of Southport.
Edge is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. Unfortunately, he was battling some personal demons.
One of his former friends is now speaking out and saying that he tried to get help for the man and that his warnings to authorities went unheeded.
It’s a tragic reminder that we have a serious mental health crisis in the country right now.
RedState reported:
We’re learning more about Sean DeBevoise, a/k/a Nigel Edge, the man suspected of killing three people and injuring many others in Southport, North Carolina on Saturday night, from a post one of his best friends made to Facebook on Sunday.
DeBevoise, a Purple Heart recipient, is a Marine sniper who served in combat in Iraq and was severely injured. Since that time he has had major mental health issues, and according to Marc Simmons’ post, DeBevoise had been “diagnosed with delusional disorder, after a short stay in a mental hospital.” Simmons and his wife, who’d asked DeBevoise to be their son’s godfather, distanced themselves from him around 2019, when DeBevoise’s “paranoia grew.”
A few years later, DeBevoise showed up at Simmons’ workplace and accused him of being part of conspiracies against him. Simmons eventually got a no contact order and “notified the courts that this was a person that was not only mentally ill, but was also a trained SNIPER and steps should be taken and taken serious.”
This is the text that Simmons recently posted on a social media site:
I have received dozens of messages and calls today so I felt like had to say something. As many of you know now Sean, I refuse to call him Nigel, shot and killed 3 people and injured several others at American Fish Company last night. Sean was someone I once considered family. Sean and I met while attending College here in Wilmington about a year after we both EAS’d out of the Marine Corps, back in 2008. Spent countless hours fishing and quickly learned we attended Boot Camp during the exact same time and graduated on the same day just different platoons! We even knew some of the same guys from the Recon Bn.
This friendship turned into a brotherhood and Sean quickly became part of my family. So much so that in 2015 Melissa and I even asked him to be the God Father to our only daughter and he became known as “Uncle Sean”. At the end of 2018 -Beginning of 2019, something changed. His paranoia grew, and despite us TRYING to help him, we grew distant. We learned that he had been diagnosed with delusional disorder, after a short stay in a mental hospital. After years of keeping our distance, Sean came into my place of work and decided that I was somehow part of his crazy conspiracies.
It was after this, that I notified the courts that this was a person that was not only mentally ill, but was also a trained SNIPER and steps should be taken and taken serious. I feared retaliation due to his insane conspiracies. I TRIED people I really did. I’ve spent several days in court trying to get people to understand he should be taken as a threat and he was/is unhinged.
The last time in court I was there for him breaking the No Contact order that was granted, and in place, to which the court responded with, “He is not an immediate threat. Therefore we can not arrest him.” I asked if they could at least take his weapons, the answer was again he was not a threat. The system FAILED, and now innocent people are dead cause people were afraid of making a decision. Yes me and my family are fine. This was 100% predictable and 100% PREVENTABLE. The system is so fucking flawed!
Military veterans with these types of problems should be moved to the front of the line to get the help they need. Always. As Simmons writes above, Edge had sniper training.
We are not excusing what Edge did in any way, but if what his former friend is describing here is true, Edge’s lawyers will have grounds to argue an insanity plea.