New 911 account adds doorway shotgun detail to October 2 Lenoir County shooting

That warning, reported by WITN’s Maya Geving in the October 21 follow-up, adds two concrete details to the account of the emergency: the weapon the caller described and the doorway from which the caller said it was being fired. It does not establish whether the caller saw either deputy being wounded.⁠2

The distinction is important. A report about emergency calls can illuminate the start of a confrontation without explaining its outcome. Here, the excerpt does not settle the sequence between the call, the deputies’ arrival and the shots that injured them. Nor does publication of the follow-up establish precisely when authorities released the recordings.⁠2

The shooting occurred in the 700 block of Jonestown Road in Lenoir County, North Carolina. Local accounts have described the surrounding area as near Deep Run and near Pink Hill; the road block is the most specific location established in the reporting. A precise numbered street address has not been substantiated.⁠5⁠17⁠18

Deputies responded late that morning. WITN-based coverage places the response around or after 11 a.m., while WCTI gives approximately 11:15 a.m. Those are estimates of the response time, not a verified time at which the deputies were shot. Sheriff Jackie Rogers said they were answering reports of a man firing at passersby; other coverage described people in passing vehicles.⁠16⁠18⁠6

Captain Jovanni Villagra suffered a gunshot wound to his stomach, and Sergeant Cole Davis was shot in the hand. Both were hospitalized. The injuries and the deputies’ identities were reported in WITN’s initial identification coverage.⁠4

Cecil Langston, 58, was identified as the man firing at passersby. He died in the incident, and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation became involved in investigating the shooting. The available accounts do not establish who fired the fatal shot or the cause and manner of Langston’s death. Reporting his death is not the same as knowing exactly how the confrontation ended.⁠4⁠5⁠16

At the October 5 county commissioners meeting, Rogers said both deputies had undergone surgery and returned home October 3, according to Neuse News’s account of his remarks. WITN and WCTI also reported October 5 that the deputies had been released and were recovering at home.⁠13⁠15⁠18

Those were encouraging early updates, but they are not a current medical assessment. The available reporting does not establish either deputy’s condition on October 21, the progress of rehabilitation or a return-to-duty date. Leaving hospital answers one question about recovery; it does not answer all of them.

The evidence behind the new account also has limits. The quoted warning comes through WITN’s reporting, rather than a complete recording or transcript independently reviewed for this article. The sheriff’s recovery remarks likewise come through an account of the commissioners meeting. Those sources support a dated account of the injuries and discharge, but not a reconstruction of every shot.⁠2⁠13

A complete call record could help establish what callers reported and in what order. Investigative findings would be needed to resolve the larger questions: how the deputies were hit, who fired during the confrontation and how Langston died. The doorway description is one piece of that account, not a substitute for it.