Family members pay respects to Fort Bragg soldier killed in weekend shooting

Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said deputies have identified a suspect from the early morning shooting on July 23 shooting at 212 Primrose Path in Pinebluff, but he did not release the name of the person they are looking for.

“Our guys have been in a hunt mode right now to try to locate the individual," Fields said.

Staff Sgt. Keith Martinez Wright Jr., 29, died from his injuries outside of what the sheriff's office describes as a makeshift nightclub.

“This place is a pain-in-my-butt area where it’s at,” Fields said. “We’ve had multiple shootings there.”

Two of the victims, Holly Smith and Desmond Jones, were airlifted to UNC Medical Center with serious injuries. They are now considered stable. Smith is the mother of Wright, according to family members.

Family members said Holly Smith got shot in the stomach.

Later, Calyndell Miller of Raeford and Tony Williams of Southern Pines were found at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst with non-life-threatening injuries from the shooting.

Fayetteville father killed, 4 others hurt in Moore County shooting

On Monday, WRAL News spoke with Wright’s siblings: Keyon Smith, LaKeisha Wright and LaTishanae Smith. Keyon Smith described his brother as a “family man.”

“Everything is family with him,” Keyon Smith said of his late brother.

The family had initially gathered to celebrate a family reunion over the weekend in Moore County, and to hold a funeral for their grandfather on Sunday.

“We had family from everywhere,” LaTishanae Smith said.

Keith Wright leaves behind two sons and two daughters, whose ages range from 2 to 7.

“Keith was an all-around person,” LaKeisha Wright said of her brother. “He loved to hang out. He liked to make people smile. He never met a stranger.

“He was a dad. He was a dad. He was a dad first.”

LaKeisha Wright explained what she will most about her younger brother.

“I’m really going to miss that like … miss waking up, going to my living room and seeing him on my couch,” LaKeisha Wright said of her brother.

LaTishanae Smith said her brother tended to get along with people.

“He never had issues with anyone,” LaTishanae Smith said of her brother. “I’ve never had a conversation with him dealing with him having problems with people at all.

“Even if you see all the posts on Facebook … everyone is always like … like, that’s the last person we thought that this would happen to, to go out like that because he didn’t have issues with people. He didn’t argue with anyone.”

LaTishanae Smith said family members were looking for Wright outside a nightclub when they noticed a big crowd.

“There were people on top of someone, and that’s when they realized it was my brother,” she said.

Mother and son Holly Smith and Keith Wright were inseparable, family members said.

Keyon Smith, who lives in Colorado, said he was asleep when his wife woke him up in the early-morning hours of July 23. He said he had missed several calls saying that his brother had died and his mother was in the hospital.

“I understand there’s a process to everything, but you feel like you just want answers, that’s all,” Keyon Smith said. “And, so far, we don’t know [anything].”

Fields said deputies are hampered in their investigation by uncooperative witnesses.

“There [were] about 100 to 150 folks there, and the cooperation with these folks has not been very forthcoming given the information, so, it’s a slow process,” Fields said.

Fields said the sheriff’s office has several interviews to finish.

Given previous crime in the area, Fields said he planned to invite agents from the North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement to enforce nuisance laws at the property of the crime.