The picturesque waterfront of Southport, North Carolina, known for its quiet charm and tight-knit community, was shattered by violence on the evening of September 27, 2025. As diners at the popular American Fish Company restaurant enjoyed a peaceful Saturday night, gunfire erupted from a single-engine white boat idling in the Southport Yacht Basin.
The attack left three people dead and at least eight others injured, sending shockwaves through the coastal town. In the hours that followed, a frantic search led law enforcement to a suspect now known nationally: Nigel Max Edge, a 40-year-old former U.S. Marine and Oak Island resident. While authorities have swiftly moved to charge him with murder, the personal history of Nigel Max Edge reveals a complex and troubled journey from a decorated service member to the alleged perpetrator of a waterfront massacre.
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A Life of Service and Struggle
Nigel Max Edge was born Sean William DeBevoise and grew up in New York State. In his self-published 2020 memoir, Headshot: Betrayal of a Nation (Truth Hurts), he recounted a childhood shaped by hunting trips in the Catskill Mountains with his father and a developing sense of honor and duty. He was a wrestler in high school, where he met his future wife, Rachel, and he later enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps following the September 11th attacks, driven by a desire to serve his country. He has no known kids or children, and further details about his married life, parents, and siblings (possibly Marie and Tammy) can’t be confirmed. His ethnicity is Caucasian or White of European (French) descent.
Edge’s military service was extensive and arduous, including three tours in Afghanistan, a mission to Haiti, and a deployment to Iraq in 2005. It was in Iraq, according to his own accounts, that his life dramatically unraveled. He claims to have been severely wounded in a friendly-fire incident, struck by four bullets, including one to the head, and later abandoned by fellow Marines in a warehouse. This injury left him with lasting physical and psychological wounds, and he was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and cognitive disorders.
His marriage to Rachel, which began in his youth, ultimately fractured under the weight of his trauma and declining mental health. While the current status of their relationship is unclear, his writings suggest she was a part of his life for many years. In a strange twist, Edge briefly stepped into the celebrity spotlight in 2012 when he attended the CMT Music Awards as the date of country singer Kellie Pickler. This encounter later turned acrimonious, as he subsequently filed a lawsuit against Pickler, alleging that she had attempted to take his life.
His personal life in more recent years appears to have been isolated. He lived at 157 NW 10th Street in Oak Island, and online profiles featured photos of him with a spotted dog, which was reportedly with him on the boat during the shooting. He legally changed his name from Sean William DeBevoise to Nigel Max Edge, a change that coincided with his increasingly public descent into legal battles and conspiracy theories.
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A Tangled Web of Grievances
After his military service, Nigel Max Edge’s life became consumed by a series of bizarre and sprawling legal battles and online rantings. He became a prolific filer of pro se (self-represented) lawsuits in federal court, naming a dizzying array of defendants, including the U.S. government, the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department, the Oak Island Police Department, and even private individuals.
His allegations were wide-ranging and erratic, claiming he was the victim of a vast conspiracy. He asserted he had been kidnapped and given a false identity and a “planted family,” that there were repeated attempts on his life through poisonings, and that he was forced into s*x trafficking, naming figures like Jeffrey Epstein. He often pointed to a perceived “white supremacy–linked LGBTQ network” as being behind his persecution. Most of these lawsuits were dismissed by the courts.
Nigel Max Edge, 40, of Oak Island, North Carolina, faces three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder, and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon after the Southport waterfront bar shooting.
He used a short barrel AR rifle with suppressor. Three… pic.twitter.com/Y0mMw01SPp
— GeoTechWar (@geotechwar) September 28, 2025
Profound disillusionment with the military institution he once served became a central theme in his life. His memoir and social media posts are filled with accusations of betrayal, alleging that his injuries were the result of jealousy and internal conflict rather than enemy action. He also turned to the public for help, once raising funds through a GoFundMe campaign to purchase the very boat that was later implicated in the Southport shooting.
On the night of September 27, 2025, witnesses reported that a boat, matching the one owned by Edge, lingered in the water for nearly an hour across from the American Fish Company before gunfire erupted around 9:30 p.m. The suspect fled via the Intracoastal Waterway but was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard at a public boat ramp on Oak Island and taken into custody without incident. He now faces three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted first-degree murder, and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon. As Southport begins to heal, the story of Nigel Max Edge stands as a tragic narrative of a life derailed by trauma, mental illness, and ultimately, violence.
