Background: Law enforcement respond after the shooting of two Robeson County Sheriff”s Office deputies near Maxton, North Carolina (WMBF/YouTube). Insets, left to right: Shawn Locklear Jr. and Deputy Jonathan Walters (Robeson County Sheriff’s Office).
A North Carolina man will spend decades behind bars for a violent crime spree in which he shot two deputies coming to arrest him, ran one of them over, and then stole an ambulance coming to rescue them, authorities say.
Shawn Locklear Jr., 22, has been sentenced to 45 years in federal prison for using a gun during a crime of violence and possessing a machine gun while selling drugs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced. He pleaded guilty last summer.
In March 2022, Locklear was arrested for armed robbery while using a gun, federal prosecutors outlined. But later that year, he was released — and later arrested on murder and robbery charges. “Shockingly, in May 2023, a state court judge released Locklear on bond while he awaited trial on those murder charges,” the prosecutors continued, and in September 2023, he allegedly committed more crimes, including reportedly choking his sister “because he accused her of stealing one of his guns.”
That was all a precursor to the fateful day of Nov. 7, 2023, when Robeson County Sheriff’s Office deputies, including Deputy Jonathan Walters, went to arrest Locklear near Maxton, North Carolina, a rural region not far from the state’s border with South Carolina. However, “as they attempted to arrest him, Locklear busted out [of] his house and scurried into the woods.”
The law enforcement officers spotted him hiding behind a tree and “commanded him to show his hands and surrender.” As federal prosecutors tell it, the suspect “first showed his left hand on the left side of the tree” but “suddenly, without warning, Locklear popped out on the right side of the tree with his gun drawn and unleashed a blaze of bullets.”
Walters and another deputy were hit “several times in the legs” and gut, authorities said. “Wounded and shocked, the deputies crawled to cover behind their patrol car,” but as one of them reloaded, Locklear “sprinted up and dove into the driver’s seat of the patrol car.”
He then “gunned it in reverse, running over one deputy and almost crushing both.” The deputies managed to shoot Locklear, but he kept driving and “left the deputies to die, bleeding in the dirt.”
After the deputies called emergency services to have someone drive an ambulance to their location, Locklear “intercepted the ambulance speeding” to them, “stopping it in the middle of the road” and forcing its driver to take him to a nearby hospital. Additional deputies responded and placed their injured fellow officers “into the bed of a pickup truck, and rushed them to the same hospital.” Officers then arrested Locklear.
“This demon should not have walked freely in our community after his first crimes in March 2022, and certainly not after the 2023 crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle. “He is not fit for society, and our families don’t need to worry about him shooting more victims for the next 45 years.”
Walters returned to work in June 2025 after an extensive recovery process. The other deputy was also treated and returned home days after the shooting, regional ABC affiliate WTVD reported at the time.
Locklear still faces a slew of state charges. Not only does he face charges related to the deputy-involved shooting — including two counts of attempted first-degree murder — but he also still stands charged with first-degree murder and other crimes referenced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
The status of the defendant’s cases in North Carolina is unclear, though records show he was supposed to have hearings last week.
