Duplin EMS supervisor, firefighter dies at station
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on December 21, 2009 1:46 PM
A Duplin County EMS paramedic and volunteer firefighter died Sunday morning behind the Pleasant Grove Fire Department, home of EMS Station No. 6, Duplin County Sheriff Blake Wallace said this morning.
Wallace said that Kurt Price's death was being investigated as a suicide after he apparently shot himself between 9:30 and 10 a.m. Sunday.
Price, 43 and the son of Maynard Price of Seven Springs, was an EMS supervisor and a lieutenant at Albertson Volunteer Fire Department. He had been with the county EMS department for five years, and Albertson for 12 years.
He was off duty at the time of the incident, Wallace said, adding that "the Sheriff's Office sends it condolences to the family."
Both Wallace and EMS Director Brian Pearce said that rumors that Price had fired at another person were untrue.
"That's incorrect. He did not shoot at anybody else," Pearce said. "He died tragically at the station."
He, too, expressed his sympathy to the family.
"It really shocked us all. It was completely unexpected," Pearce said. "He was a really great guy. He was a good supervisor and a great paramedic who really cared for people."
A voluntary critical incident stress debriefing is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight at the Emergency Operations Center in Kenansville for all emergency responders.