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Father of 4 paralyzed in I-85 rest area shooting

By Elsa Gillis
By Elsa Gillis

CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — Terrie McKee never could've imagined a simple stop at a rest stop off Interstate 85 in Cabarrus County would forever alter her family's life.

"We just heard my husband screaming in pain, 'I've been shot, I've been shot,'" she told Channel 9.

State troopers said her husband, 43-year-old Greg McKee, was washing his hands in the restroom at the rest area at mile marker 60 when two men came inside and stood next to him Saturday night.

McKee told officials one stood on either side of him, and he felt uneasy and that something wasn’t right. He looked down and said one of them was holding a handgun. He told troopers that when he saw the gun he tried to run and was shot in the back.

The two men in question didn’t take anything from McKee, officials said.

The suspects ran out of the bathroom and family members responded after hearing the gunshot.

The shooting left Greg paralyzed from the upper thigh down. He's conscious, but in a lot of pain.

Doctors told his family that all spinal injuries are different, so his recovery is unpredictable.

"These two guys, they just completely and forever altered my husband's life and the lives of our family," Terrie said.

Terrie and Greg have four children, all of whom have special needs. Terrie is a stay at home mother who home schools their children. Now she'll have to care for her husband, who was the primary breadwinner.

She had a message for the men who shot her husband: "We forgive them, but they need to turn themselves in so they don't hurt anybody else or destroy somebody else's family."

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The Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office is still searching for the two suspects and has released surveillance video from the rest stop of one of the two men in question.

"It makes me really nervous. I drive up and down 85 all the time and so I stop here at night in the morning," Sarah Vogler said.

If you know the identity of the person in the video please call the Cabarrus County Sheriff's Office at 704-920-3000 or to remain anonymous, you may contact Crime Stoppers at www.cabarruscrimestoppers.com or all 704-93CRIME (704-932-7463).

Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest in this case.

Terrie McKee told Channel 9 in a statement:

“In a senseless, random act of violence, my husband's life, and our entire family's life, was forever changed. We are now forced to deal with the ramifications of my husband being paralyzed from the waist down. While we desperately want these two men brought to justice, it is our fervent prayer that somehow they will come to know the only way to fill the vacuum that is in their empty hearts is by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no other way.

Greg and I have 4 children all of whom have special needs ranging from autism to ADHD and diabetes and chronic migraines. Ages are 21 (autism), 18, 17 and 5.  Now we must deal with getting our home handicapped accessible and dealing with my husband's daily living needs. I am a stay-at-home, homeschooling mother with chronic pain myself.

The depth of the pain, heartache, and financial burden these two men caused cannot be measured.”

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