Authorities have identified the man accused of opening fire at a crowded waterfront restaurant in Southport, North Carolina, as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who legally changed his name several years ago.
The Shooting
On Saturday night, diners at the American Fish Company restaurant in the Southport Yacht Basin were met with sudden gunfire. Police say the suspect, armed with a short-barrel AR-style rifle outfitted with a suppressor, folding stock, and scope, opened fire on the crowd without warning. Three people were killed and eight others injured.
After the shooting, the gunman reportedly fled via the Intracoastal Waterway. Around 10 p.m., he was spotted attempting to load a vessel at a marina on nearby Oak Island. The U.S. Coast Guard ultimately arrested him.
Suspect Identified
Law enforcement officials have named the suspect as Sean William DeBevoise, a former Marine who legally changed his name to Nigel Max Edge (often shortened publicly to Nigel Edge). He is 39 years old.
Edge is facing three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted first-degree murder, and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He is being held without bond at the Brunswick County Detention Center and was scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday.
Southport Police Chief Todd Coring described the incident as “a very tragic night” for the small coastal community. “We’re a small community, one of the communities where everybody knows everybody,” he told reporters as he asked the public to keep the victims and their families in their prayers.
A Troubled History
Sean William DeBevoise — who legally changed his name to Nigel Max Edge — built a personal narrative marked by trauma, mistrust, and ultimately, delusion. His background reveals not only a combat veteran with severe injuries but also a man consumed by conspiracies and legal battles against institutions he believed had betrayed him.
In his self-published 2020 book, Headshot: Betrayal of a Nation (Truth Hurts), DeBevoise recounts a harrowing experience during his Iraq deployment. He claims to have taken four bullets — including one to the head — in what he says was a “friendly fire” incident. But the physical wounds, he says, were nothing compared to the mental ones:
“Sean DeBevoise was nearly killed by his own Marines, and for reasons that are boggling to the outside mind… He still grapples with a mysterious story that the US military doesn’t want you to know.”
According to the book, he was locked inside a warehouse by fellow Marines during a firefight, left to die, and only survived through a brutal exchange of fire with insurgents. That incident, as told by DeBevoise, ignited years of suspicion — not just toward his unit or command structure, but the U.S. military, his family, and even the entertainment industry.
The suspicions eventually spilled into federal and state courtrooms, where DeBevoise filed lawsuits laden with extraordinary and incoherent claims. In one case, he alleged the U.S. government had sexually trafficked him and that the Social Security Administration issued him a “gay birth certificate” and assigned him a fake family. He claimed he was the lifelong target of what he called:
“LGBTQ white supremacist pedophiles working in the film industry.”
One of his most bizarre filings was titled “Epstein’s ELITE Pedophile Ring, leading to the ‘Abu Ghraib Scandal’ for the Film Industry.” In it, he refers to himself as a “Prisoner of Information” who had been:
“…captured by LGBQT White Supremacist Pedophile’s working in the film industry… [who] have never allowed me to accomplish my Human Right’s status in the U.S. Constitution and have never provided due payment for my contributions to the film industry.”
He also asserted that the gunshot to his head during his deployment wasn’t merely friendly fire — it was allegedly orchestrated by an “evil white supremacist LGBTQ organization” that he believed was also behind the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent wars in the Middle East.
Authorities have not yet identified a motive for Saturday night’s mass shooting. Police say the investigation is ongoing and have promised to release more information as it becomes available.
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