The case moved from a sparsely described off-duty dispute to a first-degree murder prosecution now centered partly on self-defense.
HOPE MILLS, N.C. — When Cumberland County authorities first announced that Capt. Adam Bean had been shot to death in late March, they disclosed little beyond an off-duty dispute involving another law enforcement officer. Nearly seven months later, the case includes search-warrant accounts, two stages of grand-jury review, a murder indictment and a disputed claim of self-defense.
The expanding public record traces how a fatal confrontation on Seattle Slew Lane evolved into a first-degree murder prosecution against North Carolina State Highway Patrol Sgt. Nekime Matu Oxendine, 44. Bean, 42, a longtime Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office captain, died March 27. Oxendine was not arrested immediately. Instead, state investigators spent months gathering witness statements, electronic records and other evidence before a grand jury ultimately indicted him in September. A judge has since refused to set bond, leaving Oxendine in custody as the case approaches a Nov. 4 court appearance.
The first official account was brief. Deputies responding shortly before 11 p.m. found Bean shot at a Hope Mills-area home, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The sheriff’s office described what happened as a dispute between two off-duty law enforcement officers, said the shooting was not random and assured residents that there appeared to be no continuing threat. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation was called in, an important step because the death involved personnel connected to local law enforcement. At that point, authorities did not publicly identify the other officer or offer a detailed sequence of events.
That changed when search warrants became public weeks later. The documents said a woman at the residence told investigators that Oxendine was the person who fired the fatal shots. She had previously been in a long-term relationship with Bean and had more recently reconciled with Oxendine, according to investigators. The warrants said Bean arrived at the home after trying to arrange a conversation with her and became upset after seeing Oxendine’s truck. The documents transformed what had been a general description of a domestic dispute into a specific account involving a confrontation among people with a lengthy personal history.
The warrant account also gave investigators’ first public description of the shooting itself. The woman said Oxendine came outside armed after Bean questioned his presence at the house. She told authorities Bean moved toward Oxendine and that Oxendine initially fired into the ground before firing additional shots. Deputies who arrived after the shooting found the woman performing CPR on Bean in the yard. A handgun was recovered, and investigators sought authority to examine electronic devices and other materials that could help reconstruct what preceded the confrontation and what each participant communicated before Bean’s death.
The investigation then widened beyond the final minutes. Records described text messages stretching back through earlier phases of the overlapping relationships. According to the warrants, both men had at different times expressed concern about the other man’s connection to the woman. Investigators cited messages in which Oxendine questioned whether Bean continued to hold an important place in her life after she and Oxendine reconciled. The records also showed that Bean had discussed Oxendine during his own relationship with her. Those exchanges gave investigators a longer chronology of tension, although the existence of jealousy or conflict does not itself resolve whether the shooting amounted to murder or lawful self-defense.
For months, the State Bureau of Investigation continued its work without announcing charges. Oxendine was placed on administrative duty while the Highway Patrol opened a separate internal inquiry. In August, according to later court records, information gathered in the case went before a Cumberland County grand jury. Jurors were asked to consider whether prosecutors should pursue a homicide charge or end the criminal investigation. They concluded that the circumstances had been sufficiently investigated and directed that prosecutors seek a first-degree murder indictment from another grand jury.
The second grand-jury stage produced the criminal case now pending. In September, jurors returned an indictment charging Oxendine with first-degree murder. The SBI said it had turned its findings over to a special prosecutor with the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys. Oxendine was arrested and brought before a judge. The indictment represented a major change in his legal status, but it did not determine guilt. Grand juries decide whether sufficient grounds exist for a charge to proceed; the prosecution still bears the burden of proving the charge if the case reaches trial.
Only after the arrest did another major part of Oxendine’s position emerge publicly. Court records show he sought release from custody and claimed he had shot Bean in self-defense. Superior Court Judge James Floyd Ammons Jr. considered affidavits from Oxendine and the woman who witnessed the shooting, along with evidence about Oxendine’s career, community ties and lack of a criminal history identified in the order. The judge nevertheless denied bond. The order also stated that prosecutors do not intend to seek the death penalty, narrowing the potential punishment if Oxendine were ultimately convicted of first-degree murder.
The bond decision underscored aspects of the case that distinguish it from many homicide prosecutions. The judge noted the complicated relationship among the people involved and their law-enforcement connections. Oxendine had spent about 18 years with the Highway Patrol. Bean had served the sheriff’s office since 2006 and had risen to captain and assistant chief of detectives. The woman who witnessed the shooting was also reported to work for the sheriff’s office. The court observed that trained law enforcement personnel are familiar with conflict intervention, confrontation, use of force and self-defense, but the judge did not decide whether those principles justified what happened in the yard.
Bean’s professional history became another part of the public response to his death. Cumberland County officials said he devoted nearly two decades to serving residents, and the sheriff’s office later honored him for contributions that included work on a modernization of its career-development and compensation structure. Reporting on his background also described prior Army service, including deployment to Iraq, before he joined the sheriff’s office. County leaders offered condolences after his death while emphasizing that investigators needed room to complete their work.
The Highway Patrol, meanwhile, has kept its administrative process separate from the criminal case. After Oxendine was charged, the agency said its internal investigation was continuing and that he remained on administrative duty. It said it would respect the judicial process and offered no substantive conclusion about whether his conduct complied with patrol standards. That separation means a criminal jury, if the case goes to trial, would decide the murder charge under criminal law while any employment or disciplinary findings would be handled through a different process.
The sequence of disclosures has also left some questions unanswered. Publicly available records describe the witness’s account that Bean advanced and that Oxendine fired shots into the ground before firing at him, but they do not establish how a jury will assess the credibility of that account or all of the physical evidence gathered by investigators. The records reviewed also do not establish a trial date. Nor has a court decided whether Oxendine’s claimed fear of harm met North Carolina’s legal requirements for the use of deadly force.
What began March 27 as a short official notice about an unexplained off-duty shooting is now a contested homicide prosecution. Oxendine remains jailed without bond, the state is pursuing first-degree murder without seeking the death penalty, and the defense has placed self-defense squarely into the record. His next scheduled appearance is Nov. 4, when the case will continue its movement from investigation toward litigation.
Author note: Last updated October 21, 2026.