Police in Southport, North Carolina, are investigating a deadly shooting at a waterfront restaurant after a gunman on a boat opened fire on patrons at the Southport Yacht Basin, killing at least three people and injuring eight others.
Local officials said the attack happened shortly before 9:30 p.m. on Saturday when officers were called to the area for an active shooter firing from a boat. The target was the American Fish Company, a pub and restaurant on the basin. A city spokeswoman said three people died and eight others were wounded. Their conditions were not immediately released.
A person of interest was being questioned later that night, but police had not announced an arrest. Southport City Manager Noah Saldo said investigators had not yet completed their work, and the scene remained under a heavy law-enforcement presence after the shooting.
The use of a boat as the firing platform gave the attack an unusual and unsettling character. According to the local newspaper account cited in the report, the suspect’s boat had been stationary in the water for about an hour before the shooting. After the attack, the vessel reportedly traveled up the Intracoastal Waterway toward Oak Island.
Southport is a small coastal city south of Wilmington, a place where restaurants and marinas are part of the city’s everyday rhythm. The shooting therefore struck not just as a violent episode, but as an attack in a public leisure space where families and visitors would normally expect a quiet evening. The report did not identify the victims, and officials did not describe a motive.
Authorities urged anyone with information to contact police as the investigation continued. That is typical in the immediate aftermath of an event like this, when detectives must reconstruct the shooter’s route, the order of shots and the path of the boat before they can establish a clearer timeline.
The incident adds to a grim pattern of public shootings in the United States, but the available reporting here is limited to the local Southport case. No broader claims about motive or weapons were confirmed in the excerpt, and officials had not yet tied the shooting to any other criminal act.
The number of casualties made the attack one of the most serious recent violent incidents in the region. Three people died at the scene or soon after and eight others were injured, leaving police with both an urgent investigation and a community facing the shock of sudden loss at a familiar waterfront gathering place.
As the night ended, the focus remained on locating the shooter, protecting the shoreline and identifying the victims. The facts available at that stage were stark enough without speculation: a boat, a restaurant, gunfire and a waterfront city now trying to understand how the attack unfolded.
