Lumberton, N.C. — A 47-year-old Pennsylvania woman was killed Thursday morning when another driver fired shots at her car on Interstate 95 in a road rage incident, Robeson County authorities said.
The sheriff’s office is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the person who fired the shots that killed Julie Eberly, of Manheim, Pa.
Witnesses said the shots were fired just before noon Thursday from a gray or silver mid-2000s model Chevrolet Malibu or Impala with tinted windows and chrome around the window frame. The car was last seen getting off I-95 at Exit 22 and driving over the bridge into Lumberton, authorities said.
Eberly was shot through the passenger door of her car and died at UNC Southeastern Hospital in Lumberton. Her husband, who was driving at the time, wasn’t hurt.
The vehicle Eberly was riding in came close to another vehicle while merging, according to investigators. A person in the other vehicle then drove up beside her vehicle, rolled down the window and fired several shots.
“While we hope that anyone with information in this case would come forward, this provided incentive should be cause to do so even more,” said Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins.
“This was an innocent family from Pennsylvania headed to the beach for a vacation,” Wilkins said in a statement. “Thankfully, they had left their six children at home with grandparents, but now these kids have to live with the thought of their mother being murdered in such a cowardly and senseless way.”
Wilkins said they are tracking information as far north as Nash County, where I-95 also runs through.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call 911 or the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at 910-671-3170.