THE SEARCH — Two State Bureau of Investigations agents look down into a dirt area where the body of Benjamin Howard Hartman was located last Friday. Hartman was shot and killed by his father, Duane Edward “Dewey” Brooks.

Father under investigation after son’s body found

A 56-year-old Ennice man was being questioned after reporting the May 7 shooting death and shallow burial of his 31-year-old son.

Sheriff Mike Caudill said Duane Edward “Dewey” Brooks told him that he shot his son, Benjamin Howard Hartman, three times after Hartman threatened him with a firearm. Caudill explained, “He said his son tried to shoot him and he had shot his son.”

Brooks called the sheriff’s department to report the incident last Thursday. By Friday afternoon, agents with the State Bureau of Investigations, Sheriff Caudill, Capt. Carlton Edwards and numerous deputies were on the scene searching for the body near a large mound of dirt. SBI agents restricted access to the scene, noting that it would hamper their investigation.

Caudill said in an interview on Monday that Brooks and his son both lived at 1040 White Pine Drive, a narrow dirt and gravel secondary road off Jarvis Road near N.C. 18 and the Virginia line. Hartman, who took the name of his stepfather as a young boy, lived in Spencerville, Ohio up until November 2004 when he came to live here with his biological father.

Hartman’s body was found in a pre-existing hole on the property near the partially torn-down mobile home that Hartman lived in and the camper that serves as Brooks’ residence, stated Caudill.

According to Caudill, Brooks told him that on May 7 Hartman had been drinking and threatened to kill his father. Brooks attempted to into his truck and leave, but Hartman stood in front of the truck and pointed an AK-47 at him and attempted to fire the weapon, but the safety was on.

Brooks told his son, “Don’t do this, don’t do this,” Caudill said, but the son kept trying to release the safety. Brooks then told Caudill that he shot Hartman once with a .32-caliber pistol that was lying on the front seat of his pickup truck. When Hartman tried to fire the rifle again, Brooks shot him a second time.

Caudill said Brooks told him that Hartman then walked to a camper trailer on the property and retrieved a 30-30 rifle off a shelf and was attempting to lever a shell into the chamber when Brooks said he shot him the third time with the pistol.

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