News link: http://www.wavy.com//dpp/news/north_carolina/suspects-killed-by-store-clerk-named

GATES COUNTY, N.C. (WAVY) - The Gates County Sheriff's Office has confirmed the identities of two suspects involved in a store shooting.

Officials
say brothers Quinten Felton and Eddie Felton were shot and killed after
an attempted robbery at Joppa Road Store located at the intersection of
Acorn Hill Road and Hinton Road in North Carolina around 6 p.m.
Tuesday. During the robbery, Sheriff Edward Webb with the Gates
County Sheriff’s Office, says the store clerk was knocked to the ground,
kicked in the back of the head, stomped on and kicked in the back of
the ribs. Webb says the store's owner, Duanne Ammann, legally
owned the gun used in the shooting, and that most owners of privately
owned stores in the county have a gun for protection. An ongoing
investigation reveals that Quinten beat the clerk while he was on the
ground. Webb says the clerk had a pistol under a shelf and fired one
shot at random over his shoulder while Quinten was beating him, striking
Eddie the the stomach. Then, Webb says the clerk stood up, grabbed the
barrel of the rifle that was pointed in his face by Eddie and fired
several shots through the window as Eddie ran out the door. "He
was looking down that barrel. He literally grabbed the barrel of that
gun and had to pull it off of his face. He hand was torn when the
gentleman snatched the weapon back out of his hand. And he's sitting
there being beat down on the floor, being beat and stomped and he did
what he had to do at that particular time," explained Sheriff Webb. According
to Webb, Quinten and Eddie's parents couldn't find them last night.
Eventually, the parents came to the store to identify their sons'
bodies. Quinten was shot in the stomach and was found dead by the nearby woods. Eddie was found dead by the store.

Webb says casings at the scene match the type of rifle that Eddie had.

"Unfortunately
they're just two young men that did something very uncalled for," said
Webb. "And, of course, they have paid the ultimate price." 10 On
Your Side's Anne McNamara spoke with family members about the Felton
brothers. Their cousin said they were nice kids, and that kids make
mistakes. The family expressed concern for the clerk involved as well. "If
everybody would put that situation in their lap, and think as they were
the parent of those two kids, they would think different," said Sandra
Felton, the suspects' cousin. Eddie graduated Perquimans County
High School in 2010, and Quinten was supposed to graduate this year. The
school confirms that Eddie was a varsity football player and was ranked third in the state for basketball . "He
was an all around good student.," said Principal Chante Lassiter, who
remembers Eddie. "Very liked by his peers and teachers here in the
community." Quinten was a senior honor-roll student at Perquimans County High School.

"He was a student here at the school, and in line to graduate with our graduating class on June 8," said Lassiter.

The
school provided extra counselors, ministers and other administrators to
help with counseling Wednesday. Students were allowed to leave class to
deal with their grief. "If parents feel students need to go
home, or if we felt students were overwhelmed or removed from the
setting, we have been allowing students to go home today," said
Lassiter. Cousin Sandra Felton says she remembers the young men
liked to play basketball outside the house. Her impression of them
contradicts their actions Tuesday night. "I never heard anything
bad about them," said Felton. "They were good students in school. I just
think that was a terrible thing that happened. I don't know what caused
that to happen, but my heart goes out to the family." The
suspects' mother is a teacher at a local middle school. Sandra Felton
says she always gave her daughter extra tutoring when she needed it. "She always told me, 'My door is open,' if I need to call her," said Felton.

Funeral home obituaries list Quinten as 17 years old and Eddie as 20 years old.

The
North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is assisting the Gates
County Sheriff’s Office with the investigation. Officials are looking
into robberies at two Duck Throughs - one in Pasquotank and one in
Edenton - and comparing them to the incident at Joppa Road Store to see
if there are any similarities. Deputies are searching for a third
person they believe was a getaway driver for the suspects. There is no
description of that person at this time. Anyone with information on the
driver's whereabouts is asked to call
As for
whether or not the store owner will face charges, Sheriff Webb says
detectives will send their information to the District Attorney to make a
final decision on that. "Everybody knows in North Carolina, this
is just a general courtesy law, but you know that if someone breaks in
on top of you, you have the right to defend yourself, if it be a
residence or it be a convenience store or whatever. You have the right,"
explained Webb. "I know it was a terrible thing on the other part," said Sandra Felton, in reference to the attack on the clerk. "But
still, we cannot forget that we have lost two lives, no matter what."