Ben Schachtman: Alright Nikolai… it has been a difficult week. We've both been working since Saturday night, when this shooting first happened. Walk me through what's happened since then.
Nikolai Mather: Sure – so, the shooting took place at around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. After staking out the restaurant American Fish Company on a boat, the shooter opened fire on diners, killing three and wounding five. The suspect then fled towards the Intracoastal Waterway. Only thirty minutes later, authorities arrested a man named Nigel Max Edge at the 55th Street boat ramp in Oak Island.
BS: Right, and we’re going to refer to him by that name, but until a few years ago, he went by Sean Debevoise.
NM: That’s right – so, Edge is now being held at the Brunswick County detention center. He made his first appearance in court via video call on Monday, and was charged with multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, and assault with a deadly weapon. Authorities said he exhibited significant signs of mental illness, and that the shooting was targeted and premeditated. They also said they recovered several firearms from his car, boat and household – as well as a copy of his memoir.
BS: Well, let's stop for a second and talk about this memoir. Some of our listeners have read it themselves, I’ve read part of it – but fill people in, what did Edge write about in this book?
NM: So the book is called Headshot. I just finished it. And in it, Edge makes a number of allegations about his family, about the Marine Corps, about his fellow Marines. He wrote that his wife and his platoon and the VA tried to poison him, hurt him, and kill him. It's a very harrowing read, and it's extremely unclear how much of it is factual, and how much of it could be a product of mental illness.
What we do know is that Edge was a sergeant with the US Marine Corps from 2003 to 2009 – his last assignment was the Wounded Warrior Battalion East at Camp Lejeune. We’ve also seen documentation of his combat injuries, which indicate he was shot multiple times, including, as the title of his memoir suggests, a head wound. And he says that has left him with chronic PTSD and a traumatic brain injury.
Ben, you told me this weekend – and this is incredible to me – that Edge actually stopped by WHQR back in 2024. You actually talked to him one on one. What was that experience like?
BS: He was very polite, but clearly very agitated; he shared some documentation, including discharge paperwork and photographs, that documented his service and extensive injuries. We sat and talked for about half an hour; he described a disturbing narrative, not unlike what’s in his book, but spinning a wider web, including alleged links to 9/11 and Abu Ghraib as well as the so-called Epstein trafficking ring. He was deeply frustrated that few people would believe his story, and you could tell he was disappointed that I told him it wasn’t something we could cover.
I did suggest it might be good for him to talk to a professional. I gave him my card, but there wasn’t much else I could do. I think a lot of journalists, yourself included, eventually find themselves in a situation like that – and it’s never easy.
In any case, Nikolai, you've been in Southport and Oak Island for the past few days talking to different residents who knew him. What did they tell you?
NM: Well, first I should say that every single person I spoke with was adamant about not sharing their identities – some even refused to share first names.
And that's because many knew Edge personally, and had had troubling interactions with him. Some said that when they heard initial reports about Saturday night's mass shooting, they actually fled their houses – not only because they suspected it was Edge, but because they worried Edge would try to kill them next. Obviously, that's not a concern at the moment, as he's in custody, but many residents fear that if Edge were to be released, he would see them quoted in the news and then try to hurt them.
BS: Which, we'll delve into the potential legal options for Edge later this week. Nikolai, I'm sure a lot of what was shared might have included unconfirmed rumors – there's a lot circulating right now – but of the things you heard from residents, what can you confirm?
NM: Well, a few residents said he worked as a fishing charter for some time, which a Wilmington StarNews article from 2017 confirms he had plans to form his own fishing charter company, called Headshot LLC. He did form that LLC, but according to state records, dissolved it in 2019.
Several residents told me that he was an avid firearm collector, which authorities have confirmed that they recovered many, many guns when searching his property. Several residents said that he had numerous interactions with the police — we're waiting on the Oak Island investigation Police Department to fulfill a public records request, but several residents say they called welfare checks on him, which Oak Island PD apparently fulfilled.
Several neighbors said he brought numerous lawsuits against friends, loved ones and government agencies – and that is definitely true. Ben, you've read a lot of these lawsuits – what are some of the key takeaways here?
BS: Most have been referred to as nuisance suits, mostly because they make outlandish claims. The most extreme version is his 2024 suit against the United States government, which he filed around the time we met here at the station – that articulates a lot of his conspiratorial beliefs in pretty stark terms. One thing we’ve heard people ask is why these weren’t enough to trigger some kind of psychiatric hold — but while they do seem to speak to a disturbed state of mind, I don’t think they reached the necessary level of being a danger to himself or others.
NM: Yeah, a lot of the neighbors that I spoke with mentioned all of these things: mentioned the lawsuits, mentioned the fear that they felt sometimes in interactions with him, mentioned the erratic behavior that he often displayed… mentioned like the direct interactions that he had with police. I mean, he brought one of these lawsuits against the Oak Island Police Department. And at the same time, one of them specifically said to me, if I can paraphrase, it's not illegal to be mentally ill in North Carolina. It's not illegal to own a gun if you're mentally ill in North Carolina. And I think that's really the crux of this whole case right now, is he showed a lot of warning signs, but authorities say that he stopped just short of criminal warning signs.
BS: Right, like making a direct threat to himself or others.
NM: Yes.
BS: There’s a lot more to unpack there – when it comes to our state’s mental health system and how it works with law enforcement and the courts – and currently some pushes to update some of the laws around all that. But, for now, Nikolai, thanks for your reporting.
NM: You bet. Thanks for yours.
Read more:
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- WHQR: District Attorney doesn't rule out death penalty following Southport mass shooting
- WHQR: Governor Stein visits Southport after deadly shooting, promotes mental healthcare reform
- WHQR: "Things could have gotten even worse." Southport shooting suspect makes first court appearance
