2 men sentenced in 2017 triple murder in Hickory pub parking lot

HICKORY, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – Two Hickory men were sentenced to at least 64 years in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of three people in the parking lot of an Irish pub in 2017, according to the Burke, Caldwell and Catawba District Attorney’s Office.

28-year-olds Greydon Hansen and Dontray Cumberlander pleaded guilty to the shooting deaths of Quajuae Kennedy, Justin Aiken and Cody Bouphavong outside of the McCroskey’s Irish Pub and Grill in Hickory in April 2017. All three of the victims were 21-years-old.

20-year-old Cole Ervin was also shot and injured during the shooting.

Hickory Police said Hansen and Cumberlander shot at five people while they were sitting in a car in the pub’s parking lot around 2:15 a.m. The driver of the car reportedly told officers that he and his friends were in the car when a car circled them with a man hanging out of the window with an assault rifle. A second man approached the car from behind, stuck a gun in the back window and started firing inside.

Detectives said at the time that there appeared to be no connection between the victims and suspects.

“No matter how you examine this incident, there will never be a plausible explanation for these senseless killings,” said Assistant District Attorney Lance Sigmon. “There is nothing that anyone can do to return these young people back to life. There is no one that can remove the sorrow and sadness of their families caused by these deaths. No type of punishment will bring them back to life or heal the pain the families continue to endure. But this term of years will guarantee that neither man will be released until they are in their late 80s – which should protect our community from further violent acts.”

Hansen and Cumberland elected not to speak in court.

The two men pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder, one count of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and one count of discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle. Both were sentenced to 64 to 82 years in prison.