‘Lizard Lick Towing’ star says his 21-year-old son was found dead at Sheetz in Garner
The owner of Lizard Lick Towing confirmed on Friday that his 21-year-old son had died in a shooting in Garner on Thursday night that is being investigated by the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office.
In a post on Facebook, Ronnie Shirley wrote a brief message to his son Harley, who was identified as the victim of the shooting in a release from the sheriff’s office.
“He’s at peace now — waiting on the rest of us to arrive at those gates — we will be there soon Big Shur — and will always cherish the times we had while you were with us son,” Shirley wrote.
Hundreds of people expressed their condolences.
Ronnie Shirley and his wife, Amy, have run their towing and repossession business near Wendell for several years. The family’s repossession adventures were chronicled in “Lizard Lick Towing,” which aired on TruTV from 2011 to 2014.
The sheriff’s office said Friday that investigators believe the two people who were found shot at the Garner Sheetz Thursday night were injured in a shooting at a home on Josephine Road.
Deputies responded to a reported shooting on Josephine Road around 8 p.m., Capt. Jeff Caldwell said in a news release. Soon after, a caller reported people with gunshot wounds in the parking lot of the Sheetz on Cornwallis Road, about three miles north of the home.
There, deputies found 21-year-old Harley Alexander Shirley of Clayton, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 20-year-old woman who also had been shot was taken to the hospital but her wounds were not thought to be life-threatening, Caldwell said.
Investigators went to both locations, Caldwell said, and interviewed multiple people who witnessed the shooting at the home on Josephine Road.
WRAL reported the shooting happened while family members were holding a balloon release memorial for a relative who died in a single-car crash on Tuesday in Fuquay-Varina.
Right after the shooting, multiple suspects fled the home in a yellow vehicle, Caldwell said. Investigators are working to identify the suspects.
Incident ending in Raleigh unrelated to fatal shooting
In the same release, Caldwell clarified that another Thursday night incident was unrelated to the shooting on Josephine Road.
At around 8:30 p.m., the Johnston County Sheriff’s office was notified by Raleigh police that officers had stopped two cars on Person Street in Raleigh, both of which had been shot at.
Investigators determined the cars were involved in a chase that ended in Raleigh. During the chase, occupants of the cars fired shots at each other, Caldwell said.
The incident began when two men, Willie Clyde Grady, 58, and his 40-year-old son Willie Clyde Grady Jr., both of Stem, tried to break into an auto repair shop on Cleveland Road in Garner, according to the release.
The owner of the store, TAG Automotive, confronted the men, who he thought were stealing, the release stated.
Grady and his son fled, and the owner followed them. At one point, Grady Jr. and the store owner shot at each other. No one was hurt, Caldwell said.
Johnston County deputies took Grady and his son to the Johnston County jail and charged them with attempted breaking or entering a building, according to the release.
Grady Jr. was also charged with discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle, the release stated.
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 9:49 AM.
