Fort Bragg Soldier Killed outside of Fayetteville Hotel

A Fort Bragg soldier was found with a gunshot wound in his head around 11:10 p.m. on Wednesday outside of the on Skibo Road.

Fayetteville police interviewed potential witnesses on Thursday and are reviewing video footage from the hotel.

The name of the soldier will not be released until the family has been notified.

According to the Fayetteville Observer's news, police were first called to the area two hours earlier, at 9:16 p.m., to a report of shots fired. Two officers were sent to the nearby Holiday Inn Express hotel, police spokesman Gavin MacRoberts said. A woman staying in an area hotel reported hearing shots and seeing a man running behind the Toys "R" Us, which faces away from the two hotels, he said.

The officers arrived about 4 1/2minutes after being dispatched and canvassed the area for just under 10 minutes, MacRoberts said in a Fayetteville Observer news report. They left after finding nothing amiss, he said.

"That's a good amount of time to canvass a neighborhood for something like that unless you have something more," MacRoberts said.

Two hours later, Marisela Highsmith, a clerk at the Innkeeper Hotel, discovered the soldier on the ground bleeding from the head. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

"We don't know how long he was there for," MacRoberts said. "There's a lot that's still under investigation. It would be premature to speculate."