Gunman kills eight in nursing home rampage

Eight people were killed when a gunman burst into a nursing home in North Carolina and started "shooting everything", survivors said today.

Robert Stewart, 45, barged into patients' rooms, killing seven of them and a nurse but sparing others for no apparent reason. He wounded three people, including police officer Justin Garner, 25, who confronted him in a hallway of the Pinelake Health and Rehab centre in the city of Carthage, shooting him dead.

Moore County district attorney Maureen Krueger said of the policeman: "He acted in nothing short of a heroic way today, and but for his actions, we could have had a worse tragedy." Stewart was charged with eight counts of first-degree murder and one of felony assault of a policeman.

His motive was still not clear today. He was neither a patient nor an employee of the home and was not believed to be related to any of the victims.

Beverly McNeill said her mother, Ellery Chishole had called her moments after the gunman stormed into her room and pointed his "deer gun" at another patient. "They're up here shooting, they're up here shooting," she said. Mrs Chishole hid her face in her shirt so she could not see the man but he left the room and began firing in the hall.

Stewart's ex-wife said they had not spoken since divorcing in 2001, and added: "He did have some violent tendencies. I wouldn't put it past him."