BURLINGTON, N.C. — Friends and family are mourning the loss of three men who were shot and killed in Burlington Sunday night.
A friend of the victims said she still feels like it's a dream she hasn't woken up from yet.
"At first I thought maybe they just got shot you know. But to hear that they're no longer here. They was actually murdered. That kind of took pretty hard," said, Lawanda Johnson.
You can hear the caller describing the person she believes is the suspect in 911 calls provided by the Burlington Police Department.
"I seen a man running with a shot gun. He got a white t-shirt with dreads. He got a shot gun. I come around the back and they say he shot three people," said the caller.
Police identified the three men killed as 27-year-old, Kaseem Zinebalist Peterson, 26-year-old, Jason Williams, and 18-year-old, Tyrone Nelson.
Johnson said she knew the men from when she used to live near where the shooting happened.
"They were just great men you know, they all had children and they not only fathered their children, but they fathered the whole neighborhood," she said.
Johnson says she and her children will remember them all as loving and caring.
"They're just great father figures," said Johnson, "Real great father figures even though they might not have had as much. Their love, their love was genuine for everyone."
Johnson said Jason Williams was nicknamed 'Bundy.'
"I just spoke to Bundy a couple of weeks ago on his birthday and I almost reached out and gave him a handshake and he’s like, 'Lawanda you know you don’t give me a handshake, you always hug me' and that was the last thing I heard from him," she said.
Johnson said she extends her condolences and prayers to the families, "It doesn’t hurt us as much as it's about to hurt these children. The children that grew around their children, that played with them, they’re the ones that really took a good loss," said Johnson.
Family members of Kaseem Peterson, one of the victims, say he was a wonderful father who just recently got married in April and moved to Burlington.
His family says he gave back to the community by working with nonprofit organizations, had a wonderful and playful spirit and loved fishing with his mom.
"All the kids loved him," one of his family members told WFMY News 2.
Family says he has a daughter, son, wife, and three brothers.