Like the killing of Mohammad Anwar, it was a senseless crime that shocked the nation.
Julie Eberly was shot dead on an interstate highway in a seemingly random act of savagery. The mom-of-six was blasted through the passenger door of the car her husband was driving after the couple’s car brushed up against another motorist.
Now, a week later, authorities believe they finally have the man who committed the cold-blooded road-rage shooting.
Dejywan Floyd, 29, of North Carolina was arrested early Thursday on first-degree murder charges in the death of 47-year-old Julie Eberly, the Robeson County Sherriff’s Office said.
Floyd, of Lumberton, is alleged to have shot at the couple’s car as Julie and her husband, Ryan, were on their way to celebrate their anniversary in Hilton Head.
The couple was driving on Interstate 95 in Lumberton when her husband accidentally cut off another motorist.
“I didn’t see that he was going around me and I pushed him into the shoulder mistakenly. As soon as I was able, I gave him room to get back on the highway,” Ryan told news station WGAL.
But then Floyd allegedly pulled up to them, rolled down the window and fired several shots into the vehicle.
“I saw in my mirror that he was passing us to the right and gunshots were fired, our car was hit. My wife yelled my name. I asked if she was hit and she said ‘yes,’” Ryan said.
Eberly was rushed to University of North Carolina Southeastern Hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
In addition to the murder charge, Floyd is also charged with discharging a weapon into an occupied property.
“Regardless of the circumstances, no one deserved to be murdered while traveling our nation’s highways,” Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said in a statement.
Floyd is currently being held without bond at Robeson County Detention Center, authorities said.