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A Deadly Night
Michael Hayes was acting strangely on Sunday, July 17, 1988. He threw a rock at a car, fired a gun into the air and threatened friends and family members. His family had tried to have him involuntarily committed. His actions came to a head near midnight, in a shooting spree on Old Salisbury Road near the mo-ped shop he ran. Here's a timeline: 11:25 p.m.: The Winston-Salem Police Department receives a call from a motorist Hayes threatened with a gun. Garris Edwards, Hayes' stepfather, also calls the police. 11:32 p.m.: Edwards' call is transferred to the sheriff's office. Hayes fires at passing motorists. Crystal Cantrell is shot and killed while turning around in the mo-ped shop's parking lot. 11:33 p.m.: Sheriff's deputies are dispatched. 11:39 p.m.: Tom Nicholson is shot. He drives to the Fishel home on Friedberg Church Road, gets out of his truck, collapses and dies. 11:41 p.m.: Deputies arrive. There is confusion about setting up roadblocks. 11:47 p.m.: Melinda Hayes heads north on Friedberg Church Road and drives around a civilian roadblock into Hayes' line of fire. She is shot and killed at 11:49. A deputy asks for permission to shoot Hayes. He receives no definite response. 11:51 p.m.: Hayes fires at two other sheriff's deputies. They take cover behind their cars. 11:53 p.m.: The Hull family drive into Hayes' path on Old Salisbury Road. Hayes shoots and kills Ronald Hull and wounds his wife, Darlene Hull. Hayes is shot by deputies and then subdued before he can shoot the Hulls' 8-year-old son.
Archival Articles
July 13, 2008 July 19, 1988 The Victims: One by One, a Happy Sunday came to a Bitter End for Four July 20, 1988 Criticism: Some Say Officers Were Slow to Act July 30, 1988 April 12, 1989 Jury's Task: 12 Charges, 55 Possible Verdicts April 15, 1989 Jurors Say They Had Difficulty Voting For Acquittal by Reason of Insanity |
Victims and Survivors
Dead
Wounded
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Twenty years have passed since Michael Hayes shot four people dead as they drove along Old Salisbury Road one late Sunday night in July. He injured five others before deputies brought him down. He said he was on a mission from God to kill demons.
Crystal Cantrell was 16 and a rising senior at Parkland High School. A star softball pitcher, she had just been named to the all-state softball team. She was on her way home from her boyfriend's house.
Tom Nicholson was 24, and worked in an automotive machine shop. He was killed as he was on his way home from dinner with his fiancee. 
Melinda Hayes was 21. She was a data-entry clerk downtown and was returning home to Davidson County after driving her fiance to his house.
Ronald Hull was 32 and worked as a truck driver at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. He was driving with his wfe, Darlene, and their 8-year-old son, Adam. 
Jeff Parks, now 48, worked as an auto mechanic. He was critically injured by a gunshot to the face. Parks declined a recent request for an interview.
Darlene (Hull) Atwood, now 49, was in an SUV with her husband, Ronald, and their 8-year-old son, Adam. Hayes shot her once; the bullet is still lodged in her right arm. Adam was not injured. She has remarried and works as a billing clerk at a pest-control company. She lives in Winston-Salem.
James Boyd, now 65, was in a car with another man and was shot in the thigh. Boyd could not be reached for an interview.
Greg Tirrell, now 38, was driving with a friend when Hayes shot him. He said in a recent interview that the shooting spurred him to go to college and then to get a master's degree in counseling. Tirrell has worked on and off in the mental-health field as a case manager, helping those with mental illness get treatment. He lives in Pfafftown.
Claude Eagle, now 52, was heading home that night from a date at the movies. He was shot in the left side of the head and drove himself to the hospital, stemming the bleeding with his thumb and little finger. Eagle now lives in Clemmons.ADVERTISEMENT
