Southport mass shooting suspect Nigel Edge was decorated Marine and Purple Heart recipient
The madman who fired a hail of bullets at a crowded dockside restaurant, killing three people, was a highly decorated Marine and a Purple Heart recipient who did two tours in Iraq, according to authorities.
Nigel Edge — who changed his name from Sean DeBevoise in 2023 — received several prestigious awards during his service in the Marine Corps between September 2003 and June 2009, a US military spokesperson told The Post.
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Edge, a ranked sergeant, received a Purple Heart medal awarded to service members killed or wounded in action against an enemy, the spokesperson said.
He was also awarded the Marine Corps Good Conduct medal, Combat Action ribbon, Sea Service Deployment ribbon, Iraq Campaign Medal with two bronze stars, Humanitarian Service medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service medal, and National Defense Service medal, the spokesperson added.
Edge, 39, was deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving two multi-month stints in the war-torn country in 2005 and 2006, authorities said.
His last assignment was at the Wounded Warrior Battalion East in Camp Lejeune, a center that offers rehabilitation, counseling, and recovery care for military members wounded in combat.
North Carolina authorities also identified Edge as a combat veteran allegedly suffering from PTSD.
Edge was arrested Saturday night for allegedly spraying bullets into a crowd of diners at the American Fish Company restaurant in Southport Yacht Basin, about 30 miles south of Wilmington, officials said.
Three people were killed and eight were injured in the gunfire. One of the wounded victims is still “clinging to life,” authorities told reporters Sunday.
He was armed with a short-barreled AR rifle, equipped with a suppressor, with a folding stock and scope, according to court documents.
Edge faces three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted first-degree murder, and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
A motive has yet to be determined, but authorities have called the mass shooting “highly premeditated.”
In his years since leaving his prestigious career with the Marines, Edge appears to have become a paranoid and delusional conspiracy theorist.
Records revealed that the once lauded Marine orchestrated a slew of bizarre lawsuits filed in North Carolina this year.
One suit, filed in May, claimed the Generations Church was behind a “civil conspiracy” masterminded by the LGBTQ community and white supremacist pedophiles to kill Edge because he’s “a straight man.”
In another suit filed in January against the Brunswick Medical Center, Edge accused them of being a part of a conspiracy launched by “LGBTQ White Supremacists” who were targeting him because he survived their attack in Iraq.
The rambling lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice, court records showed.
A book written by Edge, when he went by DeBevoise, “Headshot: Betrayal of a Nation,” also starkly claims that he was shot four times, including in the head, by friendly fire over an international conspiracy.
In the book, Edge claimed he found himself entrapped in a conspiracy ring while fighting in Iraq.
The Marine said he was wounded in two separate IED attacks during a 2006 tour in the war-torn country, along with a bullet wound that left shrapnel lodged in his head.
In 2012, he was seen on the red carpet accompanying “American Idol” star Kellie Pickler to the Country Music Awards.
Edge was being held at the Brunswick County Detention Center without bond, according to court records.
He is due to appear in court on Monday for an initial hearing.
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