KINSTON, N.C. — The hunt is on in Lenoir County for whoever decided to play judge, jury, and executioner in the dead of night. Somebody out there on Nobles Lane squeezed a trigger just past midnight, and when the smoke cleared, 28-year-old Marquez Lewis was dead. Now that somebody is still walking free, and the clock is ticking.
Here’s how it went down: The call crackled over the police radio around 12:15 a.m. on May 7, 2026 — gunshots near the Stadiem Drive and Nobles Lane area. Cops hauled over there fast, but not fast enough. The shooter was already gone, vanished into the shadows like a ghost, leaving behind only chaos and a dying man.
Officers found Lewis suffering from a gunshot wound and jumped straight into action, trying to cheat death with their own two hands until paramedics arrived. It was a losing battle. Lewis was pronounced dead, and the person responsible had already put distance between themselves and the crime scene.
Right now, the suspect is a phantom. No name, no face, no description released to the public. Kinston PD is playing their cards close to the vest, which usually means one of two things: they’ve got a lead they’re chasing quietly, or they’re coming up empty and hoping someone talks. Either way, the silence from the department is deafening.
The area turned into a secured crime scene overnight. Investigators moved methodically through the darkness, gathering evidence, snapping photos, measuring distances. Every shell casing, every footprint, every tiny piece of debris tells a story. The question is whether it tells the right one.
Detectives are working the case hard, following up on whatever scraps of information they can gather. They’re interviewing potential witnesses, which is a polite way of saying they’re asking people to risk their own safety by speaking up. In a tight-knit community where what goes around comes around, that’s a tall order.
Whoever did this is banking on that fear, counting on the neighborhood to stay quiet and let them slip away clean. They’re betting that anyone who saw something will look the other way. It’s a safe bet in too many cases like this, but all it takes is one person deciding they’ve had enough of the bloodshed.
The Kinston Police Department is making it easy to do the right thing. Call the Tips Line at 252-939-4020 and whisper what you know. You don’t have to be a hero or put your name on anything. Just give investigators a direction to run, because right now, a killer is out there walking the same streets you do.
