The facts
A Cumberland County grand jury on Wednesday indicted North Carolina State Highway Patrol Sgt. Nekime Oxendine on first-degree murder in the March 27 shooting of Cumberland County Sheriff's Capt. Adam Bean, 42, outside a Hope Mills home. Oxendine was denied bond. Next court date is in November. He had been on administrative leave.
Search warrants obtained by the News & Observer say the house belonged to Tara Whitman, who had dated both men at different times. She dated Oxendine first, then lived with Bean until December 2025, then reconciled with Oxendine. Texts from 2022 show Oxendine writing, "I see u have been talking to Adam!!! Best Wishes!!!" and "Better tell that [expletive] to get ready too!!!" Later texts show him still asking if Bean was more attractive and saying he did not want the "same predicament" if she went back.
Whitman told investigators Bean came over uninvited, saw Oxendine's truck, and moved toward him. She said Oxendine came out with a gun, fired what she thought were warning shots into the dirt, then fired and hit Bean. Deputies found Bean in the front yard with blood on his chest and left arm. She was doing CPR. Bean died there. He had nearly 20 years with the sheriff's office. Oxendine had 18 years with the Highway Patrol. He is charged. He has not been convicted.
Our take
Two men with guns and a badge, one driveway, one woman who told Bean not to come. One of them is dead in the grass. The other is in a cell with no bond.
Do not invent a slut-resume for Whitman. She dated both. That is the file. She begged Bean to stay away. He came anyway. She did CPR on a cop in her yard. The punch is the men. The 2022 text that says get ready. The "warning shots" into dirt. The idea that a trooper and a captain could not keep their dicks and their firearms in separate rooms.
If you need a first-degree indictment to learn that a love triangle plus a service weapon is a murder scene, you are too stupid to have the gun.
