NEWS RELEASE

June 11, 2002
7:45 p.m.

CARY, NC – Stephen Max Gregory, 45, of 6312 Hilbert Ridge outside Holly Springs, NC is dead this evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.  He committed suicide after discharging more than a dozen rounds from an assault rifle into a 1991 Dodge Viper parked outside the Carolina Back Institute, 400 Keisler Drive in southeast Cary, where he was a patient.

Regarding his death, officials with Carolina Back Institute said that they were "deeply saddened at the loss of life and the terrible tragedy of today’s event." CBI has referred any requests for comment or information to the Cary Police Department.

At 3:34 p.m., Cary 9-1-1 received a report of a man—Gregory--carrying and discharging firearms in the Keisler Drive parking lot, which serves several medical-based businesses in the area. Eyewitnesses said that after firing at the Viper, Gregory turned the handgun on himself. He was alive when officials transported him to the Trauma Center at Wake Medical Center in Raleigh where he died a few hours later. He was carrying a suicide note, the contents of which have not been released.

In addition to the rifle and handgun used by Gregory, police recovered his green pickup truck parked very near the Viper, which belongs to Dr. Scott Sanitate, a physician at CBI.

Officials are not releasing any other details this evening as they wrap up their investigation. A report will be flied as soon as possible and made available at the Cary Police Department.