Thomas Lark’s wife expected him back with hamburger fixings; minutes later, a neighbor arrived at her door with devastating news.
MOUNT HOLLY, N.C. — Julie Lark remembered the errand by what was missing from the kitchen: tomatoes, onions, hamburger buns and a drink for a Labor Day cookout. Her husband, Thomas Henkel Lark, had gone to the store to pick them up Sept. 7 and was supposed to be gone only a few minutes. Instead, the 57-year-old was fatally shot near their Grandhaven Drive home, and a 25-year-old neighbor was arrested on a second-degree murder charge.
The ordinary purpose of Lark’s trip has become one of the clearest markers of how abruptly the evening changed. Julie Lark said the couple planned hamburgers for the holiday and her husband volunteered to make the quick run. After he returned to the neighborhood, she heard a loud noise outside but could not immediately identify it. She initially wondered whether it was fireworks. Then came an urgent knock. A neighbor told her she needed to come outside because Thomas had been shot. What had begun as a grocery trip had become a homicide scene only steps from home.
People at the scene tried to save Lark. Julie Lark told WSOC that a neighbor’s son was performing CPR when she came outside and that efforts continued for about 30 minutes. Gaston County police said officers responding shortly before 8:45 p.m. found a victim dead from a gunshot wound. Later reporting identified that victim as Lark. Police said Jaelen Michael Lee Drum was still at the scene when officers arrived, and he was taken into custody. Queen City News reported that investigators said Lark had been shot three times.
The shooting followed what local reports described as a minor vehicle collision involving the two neighbors. That collision has received attention because of the stark difference between its apparent severity and what came next, but many details remain undisclosed. Authorities have not released a comprehensive account of which vehicle struck the other, the precise locations of the men when the argument began or a full transcript of what was said. Early WSOC reporting attributed the fender-bender account to a neighbor before police publicly confirmed additional details, while later reports citing police described a disagreement that began after a small crash.
Drum has maintained that he acted to protect himself. During his first court appearance, he appeared by video and apologized before saying he had been defending himself and wanted to see his wife and child. Julie Lark said Drum also addressed her after the shooting. She recalled him saying that he had told Thomas to back away and that Thomas had not done so. In another interview, she recalled Drum saying he believed he “had to” shoot. Those statements provide part of Drum’s account, but they do not resolve the legal question of self-defense. Police arrested him on a second-degree murder charge, and no court has determined his guilt.
Julie Lark’s public comments have centered less on the legal terminology than on the speed of the loss. She and Thomas had marked their 24th wedding anniversary in June. His 58th birthday would have been Sept. 12. In interviews after the killing, she described him as gentle, funny, kind and widely liked. She also spoke about hummingbirds, which he enjoyed watching and feeding around the couple’s home. After his death, she said their presence had become a source of comfort amid a scene and a sequence of events she was still struggling to process.
The private portrait offered by his wife was broader than the circumstances that made his name part of a criminal case. Lark’s obituary described him as a journalist, actor, cyclist and active member of his church. Born in Charlotte in 1968, he grew up in Lincolnton and graduated from Lincolnton High School in 1986 before attending North Carolina State University. He spent more than 26 years working in journalism, with positions at The Anson Record, The Belmont Banner, Gaston Lifestyles Magazine and the Lincoln Herald. He worked as a reporter, writer and editor and received local recognition for his reporting.
Theater was another long-running part of his life. His obituary said he performed extensively in Little Theatre and community theater during the 1980s and 1990s. His roles included appearances in “The Crucible,” “The Elephant Man,” “Scrooge,” “The Velveteen Rabbit” and “Miracle on 34th Street.” He portrayed Christian author C.S. Lewis in “Shadowlands” at Belmont Abbey College. Lark also cycled extensively and was remembered for riding Mount Mitchell with a group of professional cyclists. At St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, where he was a parishioner for 23 years, he took part in theatrical programs and belonged to the Holy Name Society.
His professional work similarly tied him to communities across the region. The Lincoln Herald said Lark had been with the publication from its beginning in 2012 and spent 14 years covering local institutions and residents. Publisher Jay Dellinger wrote that Lark reported on government, schools, churches, community organizations, special events and sports. Some assignments concerned major public issues; others documented people and groups that might not otherwise have received news coverage. Hundreds of his articles remained in the newspaper’s archives after his death, leaving a record of the communities he had spent years reporting on.
That record gave Lark’s killing another dimension for colleagues. Only days before his death, the Lincoln Herald had celebrated its 14th anniversary, and Dellinger had publicly thanked Lark for being part of the publication from the beginning. After the shooting, the publisher wrote that he had not imagined he would soon be preparing a memorial instead. The tribute avoided trying to answer questions investigators had not yet settled and instead focused on Lark’s work, noting that years of articles about elections, schools, festivals, churches and local residents would remain accessible even though another story carrying his byline would not arrive.
The criminal investigation proceeded separately from that remembrance. Drum was initially held in the Gaston County Jail without bond. Reporting in the days after the shooting listed Sept. 29 as his next scheduled court date. A review of publicly indexed reports through Oct. 20 did not locate a reliable published account establishing a plea, trial or final disposition after that date. Prosecutors therefore still bear the burden of proving the second-degree murder allegation, and Drum’s assertion of self-defense remains a claim to be evaluated through evidence rather than accepted or rejected solely on his statement.
The case began during a difficult night for first responders in the Mount Holly area. Roughly 15 minutes after the Grandhaven Drive shooting, emergency crews were called to another fatal shooting on Noles Drive. Authorities handled that death as a separate investigation, and no verified connection between the incidents was established in the early reporting. For Julie Lark, however, the focus remained much narrower: a holiday meal that never happened as planned and a husband who left for groceries and did not come back. Investigators have yet to publicly fill in all of the minutes between those two points.
Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.