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American Fish Company in Southport, NC
Court records show that Nigel Max Edge filed multiple bizarre lawsuits with wild claims before the attack.
The U.S. Marine Corps veteran accused of killing three people and injuring five others in a mass shooting at a North Carolina waterfront restaurant on Saturday spent years filing federal lawsuits filled with sprawling conspiracies and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. His final complaint was filed just three days before the September 27 attack.
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Authorities say Nigel Max Edge, of Oak Island, positioned his center-console vessel alongside the deck of the American Fish Company, a popular bar and filming site for Nicholas Sparks’ Safe Haven, and unleashed a burst of gunfire into a crowd gathered for live music. He allegedly sped away but was arrested about 30 minutes later at an Oak Island boat ramp, where Coast Guard officers spotted him trying to haul out his trailer, according to the Associated Press.
“This was not random. It was highly premeditated,” Southport Police Chief Todd Coring said. He added that the location was “targeted,” though he did not elaborate.
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The three people killed were identified as Lindsay R. Brown, Deion L. Johnson, and Anthony C. Granito. District Attorney Jon David noted that many victims were tourists.
Edge appeared by video for his first court hearing on Monday and was denied bond on three counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder, and five counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors said they are considering the death penalty and disclosed that he may have tried the attack a night earlier, when he was spotted lurking offshore with his boat lights off.
Even before the shooting, Edge was a familiar figure in the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to court records reviewed by The Advocate. In 2024, he filed a federal complaint claiming he had been targeted in “a Hate Crime (LGBQT toward a straight man)” and accusing his parents of being “LGBQT White Supremacist Pedophiles.” He tied those allegations to Abu Ghraib, the prison in Iraq, and Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious pedophile. Judge Louise Flanagan dismissed the case in March, calling the claims “extraordinary” but legally baseless.
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That same theme ran through a suit Edge filed in February 2025 against relatives and acquaintances in which he claimed they were “captors acting as family” who trafficked him for “Epstein’s Elite Pedophile Ring.” He sought $500,000 from each defendant. A magistrate judge recommended dismissal, describing the claims as “so delusional that they are simply unbelievable.”
Also in February, Edge filed a case against country singer Kellie Pickler, alleging she and her late husband poisoned him and that their names contained “LGBQT codes” as part of a wider conspiracy. He demanded $1 million. That suit, too, was recommended for dismissal.
He sued the Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming VA doctors poisoned him, gaslighted him, and prescribed unnecessary drugs as part of an “LGBQT code” designed to humiliate him. Flanagan dismissed the case in September for lack of jurisdiction after finding that Edge had filed his claim with the wrong agency.
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By May, Edge had filed another complaint, this time naming five acquaintances and accusing them of conspiring with “White Supremacist Pedophiles” and “LGBQT/Terrorist” groups to traffic him throughout his life. A magistrate judge recommended dismissal, struck the words “pedophile” and “LGBQT/Terrorist” from the record as scandalous, and warned Edge that his growing list of frivolous filings could result in sanctions.
The following month, Edge sued a physician assistant, alleging medical malpractice, poisoning, and attempted murder during treatment at the VA. The case was removed to federal court in June and remains pending.
Finally, just days before the shooting, Edge filed yet another case against the VA, repeating many of the same claims and attaching news articles and earlier court filings as exhibits. Within 24 hours, he abruptly moved to dismiss his own complaint, asking for a refund and apologizing to the court for “wasting the court’s time.”
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Military records confirm that Edge served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2009 and received a Purple Heart after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head. Prosecutors said he has a traumatic brain injury and “significant mental health issues.”
Edge is due back in court Oct. 13 for a probable cause hearing.
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