Who Is Nigel Edge? What to Know About the Suspected Shooter

The idyllic community of Southport, North Carolina, was left reeling after a shooter opened fire on patrons of the American Fish Company bar in September 2025.

Authorities later arrested a suspect, Nigel Edge, who's since been hit with several charges for allegedly shooting up the waterfront bar.

Here's a look into the background of the alleged shooter, who had a pretty colorful past leading up to the mass shooting.

Edge reportedly changed his name in 2023 ... his legal name from birth was Sean William DeBevoise, according to NBC News.

Authorities stated they were looking into "all of his past," according to Newsweek.

Records show DeBevoise held fishing and hunting licenses in several states, including North Carolina, prior to the shooting.

He reportedly had a total of six encounters with the law ... none of his offenses were specified, in 2006, 2008, and 2015.

Edge is a military veteran, and a U.S. military spokesperson told the New York Post the accused shooter had been in the Marines from 2003 to 2009.

The spokesperson also confirmed the suspect had been deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2006, and received several awards, including a Purple Heart, in the service.

Edge wrote and self-published a book, "Headshot: Betrayal of a Nation (Truth Hurts)," about his time in the Marines, and wrote he'd been wounded in two incidents involving improvised explosive devices.

He also alleged he'd been shot four times by his fellow servicemen over his apparent involvement in a conspiracy. The accused shooter wrote one of the incidents saw him being shot in the head.

Records show Edge had filed several lawsuits in North Carolina in the months prior to the shooting, the New York Post reports.

In one lawsuit, Edge alleged the Generations Church was at the center of a "civil conspiracy" -- with the involvement of both the LGBTQ community and white supremacist pedophiles -- aimed at killing him based on his status as "a straight man."

Edge filed another suit against the Brunswick Medical Center and claimed it was part of a conspiracy involving “LGBTQ White Supremacists,” who'd apparently aimed to harm him after he survived an alleged attack in Iraq.

Both of the accused shooter's lawsuits were eventually dismissed with prejudice.

Edge wasn't completely unknown before the shooting ... because he accompanied former American Idol contestant Kellie Pickler to the 2012 CMT Music Awards.

Although the pair appeared to lose contact after the event, he sued her in February 2025 and claimed she'd attempted to kill him while they attended the event.

Edge claimed the singer had given him a poisoned glass of Jim Beam, which he chose not to drink.

The suspected murderer represented himself in the filing, and we reached out to Pickler's legal team for comment on the situation.

The shooting began when Edge allegedly approached the American Fish Company on his boat and opened fire at patrons before fleeing up the waterway.

He was reportedly apprehended after a U.S. Coast Guard crew spotted him loading a boat onto a public ramp in nearby Oak Island, after which they turned him over to local police.

A total of three people were killed in the shooting, and another eight suffered varying degrees of injury. Edge has since picked up several charges, including three counts of first-degree murder.