‘Just not fair’: Family of deadly shooting victim pushing for murder charge

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Doris Barbee said she couldn’t believe the news when she got a call Saturday night from her granddaughter.

Her grandson, 27-year-old Robert Sessoms, had been shot and killed after an argument with Aaron Metcalf, 42, in a Smith Creek Village townhome on Minnow Way around 5 p.m. Saturday. Sessoms had been trying to pick up his son from the child’s mother, according to his family.

Barbee said she broke her table, almost broke her TV, and started throwing up when she got the call.

“Nobody expected that. Nobody,” she said. “That’s not the person Robert was. He was too good to be murdered like that.”

Metcalf has been charged with voluntary manslaughter, not murder – something Sessoms’ family disputes. They told WECT they believe the shooting was intentional, and are seeking justice for someone they called a family man.

“He wanted to murder my brother. And he did murder my brother,” said Kiana Terry, Sessoms’ sister.

Jason Smith, the district attorney for New Hanover and Pender Counties, said he can’t comment on why Metcalf hasn’t been charged with murder.

Sessoms’ stepsister, Andria Herring, said she raced to the scene just minutes after getting a call about the shooting. She was looking for Sessoms, but saw his car still running and knew something had gone wrong.

“It doesn’t make any sense at all,” she said. “We’re still trying to figure out – how did it go so wrong?”

Sessoms and Metcalf had gotten into an argument at the home, police said. Multiple gunshots and screaming could be heard blocks away, according to a neighbor.

Sessoms didn’t go to the townhouse to fight, his family said, but just hoped to pick up his son for the weekend.

“It’s just not fair,” Barbee said. “To get his life taken like that, just for wanting to pick up his son, it’s cruel.”

Metcalf had previously threatened Sessoms’ life about a month ago, Herring said. Metcalf “made” the situation about himself and “chose” to kill Sessoms, Terry said.

“I don’t want to have to bury my brother. I don’t want to have to see him in a casket,” Terry said. “It hurts because he didn’t even make it to 30. He just had his son. His son will never know how much his father loved him.”

Having a son had inspired Sessoms, Barbee said. Sessoms, who drove a delivery truck, had hoped he and his sister could start their own trucking business one day.

Sessoms cared deeply about his family, Terry said. One of the last texts he sent her, seemingly out of nowhere, just read, “I love you.” Though Terry lives in Arizona, she texted with her brother almost every day up until his death. She got on the first flight to Wilmington she could, and said she broke down in tears at the airport thinking about what had happened.

“I screamed,” she said. “I screamed because I never in a million years would’ve thought that’s how my Saturday would’ve been.”

The family still hasn’t been able to see Sessoms’ body, Terry said, apparently because the morgue is too backed up.

For now, they’re stuck grappling with his loss and left with questions about what exactly happened at the townhouse.

“I’m gonna miss him so much,” Barbee said. “He was my baby. My baby.”