Local News - November 2002

Grisly details of shooting recounted

By ALICE SMITH, LTN Staff Writer

November 4, 2002 - Police have identified a Lincolnton man who shot his way into the home of his estranged wife Friday and killed her and her 14-year-old daughter, before turning the gun on himself.

Kevin Morrison, 39, 1593 Crossover Drive, used a .44-caliber magnum blue steel handgun in the shootings early Friday morning.

Gael Morrison, 35, and daughter Amanda Barnhardt were pronounced dead at the scene.

Gael Morrison suffered from a single shot to the chest; Amanda was shot once in the chest and once under the right earlobe.

Kevin Morrison died of a single shot to the head.

Eleven-year-old Bobby Barnhardt escaped unharmed through a back staircase, due to the heroic efforts of his sister, Amanda.

The tragic morning started at 6:38 a.m., when police received a call about shots being fired in the neighborhood of Bonview and Grove streets.

Officer Jason Hutchinson arrived on the scene and was talking to a neighbor who had heard the shots, when another shot was fired.

Hutchinson decided the shot came from Morrison’s residence, an upstairs apartment in a two-story blue house at 502 Grove Street.

Hutchinson pulled into the driveway of the house, with Sgt. Danny Hallman behind him.

They began climbing the stairs to the entrance of the apartment and saw glass and debris on the landing.

At the time, they thought they may be dealing with a hostage situation. They called for assistance, and more Lincolnton officers, as well as officers from the sheriff’s office and highway patrol arrived.

Police Chief Terry Burgin and State Trooper Jack Ferree entered the residence through the back and cleared the first floor.

Burgin advanced to the second floor where he found the three victims lying on the living room floor.

“Chief Burgin opened the door to give clearance and held up three fingers,” Hallman said. “We knew the situation was over.”

“Then they shot my mom”

Eleven-year-old Bobby Barnhardt was asleep when he heard gunshots.

He said he saw a man’s hand shooting through the door leading into the apartment. He peeked out from his bedroom.

At about that time, neighbor Anna Lisa Johannessen and her daughter were awakened by a loud noise.

At first, Johannessen said she thought a car had backfired.

She and her daughter peered out of a window and saw Kevin Morrison outside Gael Morrison’s apartment.

He was shooting his way in. She called 911.

Johannessen said she saw a flash of light as the gun went off. There were no voices, no yelling.

“It was really scary,” she said.

On the inside, it was even scarier.

Bobby’s sister, Amanda, called 911, police said.

“Then they shot my mom,” he said Friday.

Bobby’s reaction was to grab his baseball bat. But he wouldn’t need it. Amanda opened a door leading to a back stairwell, shoved him down it and closed the door behind him.

It was the last time Bobby would see his sister.

Investigators are calling the girl a “hero.”

Bobby went down the stairs, which led into the home of Shirley Smith, who owned the house.

Burgin said Smith’s heroic actions also helped save the life of Bobby.

“She got that little boy out of there, hid him and took him out the front door,” Burgin said. “If she had not been there, he would have gone back up.”

“Other incidents of abuse”

The shooting rampage followed a stormy relationship in the family.

Gael Morrison and her children moved into the apartment on Grove Street about three months ago when she left Kevin Morrison.

Police said they have responded to domestic complaints involving the two when they lived together at a previous residence.

Court records show that the relationship was strained.

In July both took out restraining orders on each other. Later that month, both were voluntarily dismissed.

Kevin Morrison alleged that his step-children made threats to him and his daughter.

Gael Morrison said that during a camping trip to Virginia, Kevin Morrison became enraged.

“I was packing up in haste to come back (to Lincolnton) because of verbal abuse,” Gael Morrison said in her statement.

She said Kevin Morrison slashed their tents and broke fishing poles.

“There have been other incidents of physical abuse,” the statement reads.

Gael Morrison alleged that Kevin Morrison had a gun in his vehicle, and that he possibly carried it while drinking alcohol.

Police found Kevin Morrison’s car parked about a block away from the scene.

A search of his residence turned up more ammunition.

“It’s just a bad situation”

Many law enforcement officers agree that this is the worst thing they have seen in their careers as police officers.

“When you see them laying there, it’s a shock,” Ferree said. “It’s just a bad situation.”

Police on the scene — including retired police Chief Tom Burgin — could not remember the last time there was a double homicide in Lincolnton.

There have been no homicides this year.

“This is the worst scene I’ve ever been involved in in my 29 years,” Terry Burgin said.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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