Father uses Facebook Live to confess shooting of ex-wife and son

'I loved my wife, but she deserved what she had coming'

A US father has used Facebook Live to confess to the shooting of his son and former wife, saying the latter “deserved what she had coming".

While broadcasting the message, Earl Valentine of Norlina, North Carolina, also admitted to having “been very sick for months.”

Keisha Valentine survived the attack but her son, Earl Valentine Jr, died from his injuries. Valentine later killed himself in a motel room having fled to Columbia, South Carolina.

“She lied on me, had warrants taken out on me,” said Valentine in the broadcast. “She drug me all the way down to nothing. I loved my wife, but she deserved what she had coming.”

He continued: “Pleasure knowing all y’all.

“I’ve been very sick for months. And this is something that I could not help. So I don’t know if I’m gonna make it where I’m going, but if I don’t, I wish all of you a good life.”

The mother and son had moved to Norlina to escape the abusive Valentine. A restraining order against him expired in August.

Earl Jr had attempted to intervene when his father broke into their house to shoot Ms Valentine. He was able to tell police what happened shortly before he died.

Before his own death, Valentine also spoke with Norlina Police Chief Taylor Bartholomew on the telephone, in a conversation that was described as “cold and callous”.

In comments reported by The Washington Post, Chief Bartholomew said: “For somebody that had just done something like that, he was calm but he was aggressive.

“He was trying to pump me for information. His main focus was to make sure his ex-wife was dead.”

Chief Bartholomew later told journalists in Raleigh, North Carolina, that investigators tracked Earl Valentine's mobile phone signal to Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday morning, where it is believed Valentine was visiting his father's grave.

The chief said police then tracked Valentine to Columbia, South Carolina, where US Marshals found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a rented room.

Keisha Valentine remains in a critical condition, police said.