’I thought I was going to be dead,’ says survivor of Raleigh shootout that left 2 dead
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Shooting at Raleigh’s Renaissance Park neighborhood
A shooting on Jan. 21, 2025, in the Renaissance Park neighborhood left two men dead, including the suspect, and a police officer critically injured. Here is ongoing coverage from The News & Observer about the shootout and aftermath.
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As snow fell over Raleigh Tuesday night, Jill Rohner ran out of her townhome while her boyfriend, John Rowe, lay on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound.
Moments before, the two of them had struggled to push her abusive ex-husband, Antonio Rodrigues, out of her home after he had shown up with flowers, despite a restraining order and a probation sentence.
On Friday afternoon, Rohner sat still at a friend’s dining-room table, gripping a tissue as she recalled the night she thought Rodrigues was going to kill her.
“I didn’t recognize it as him,” she said. “He had a big mask on and a hood. He plowed through the front door.”
After the initial confrontation, Rodrigues fled and Rohner was able to call 911. But minutes later he returned with a shotgun and soon, Rohner was cornered in her garage begging for her life.
“I thought I was going to be dead,” she said. “He could’ve killed me; he opted not to. We were face to face, and I was pleading with him.”
Raleigh police identified Rodrigues as the suspect in the triple shooting that killed both him and Rowe and has left police officer M.A. Gillick critically injured.
After their 20-year marriage ended 11 years ago, Rohner tried to shield herself from Rodrigues, she said. She left her home in Carteret County after he was convicted of stalking her. She faced intimidation, revenge porn and violence at his hands.
For years, she said, she worked hard to be joyful, find love and travel. When she met Rowe two years ago, she finally felt safe.
Now, as she grieves, Rohner is trying to make sense of what happened Tuesday and questions how a system meant to protect victims of domestic violence failed again.
Recounting a tragic night
A day before the shooting, Rohner had a handyman come fill the holes in her wall from pictures because she was preparing to sell the home and move in with Rowe, a man she called the love of her life. The two met on an online dating site.
“I have recently said to people, ‘It took me 67 years, but I finally got it right, found the right person,’” Rohner said. “I was very much in love.”
Rowe, a retired family doctor, was the father of four children and grandfather to four, Rohner said. He had lost his wife four years ago.
“He was just kind and sweet and generous and warm,” she said. “He was just that man that gave to the community, and he just had a lovely family, which is part of what drew me to him: how well he got along with his kids and grandkids.”
As she recounted the incident, Rohner said Rowe was first hit by Rodrigues with a taser while they were fighting in the living room.
Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said the call was reported as a burglary in progress on Democracy Street.
Rohner said while she was on the phone with the dispatcher, Rodrigues came back, broke down the back door screen and shot Rowe.
She ran into the garage to protect herself. Rodrigues found her there but didn’t physically hurt her. Rohner said while in the garage, Rodrigues told her “[you] took everything from me.” She said she thought it was best not to argue with him.
When Rohner came back into the house, Rowe was still alive. Police had arrived and instructed her to leave as they handled the situation. She ran out with socks on, without her shoes or a coat.
“I wanted everything in my power to just drag [John] with me out of there,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave John.”
Rohner’s neighbor Kayla Biesaga saw Rohner run out of her house.
“We were just chilling in the house,” she told The N&O on Wednesday. “We didn’t hear the initial shotgun that was fired. We heard cop sirens, we heard cop shooting, then I saw my neighbor ... run out of the house with no shoes on and we were like, ‘Girl, get in here!’“
Rodrigues shot at police from inside the home, and they returned fire, killing him, according to police.
Rowe was taken to the hospital, where he also died.
‘The system fails’
Rohner and Rodrigues moved to North Carolina after buying a house in Carteret County in 2010, according to property records.
In 2014, they divorced, and Rodrigues was convicted of felony stalking. He moved back to New Jersey, court records show, and Rohner moved to Raleigh.
But in 2021, Rodrigues was arrested in Raleigh and accused of stalking his former wife. He pleaded guilty in March 2023 to seven counts of stalking, stalking with a prior conviction, and disclosing private images, court records show.
The judge suspended his 32-month prison sentence, ordering Rodrigues to serve 36 months of probation, complete an abuser treatment program, undergo a mental health assessment, and discard any images of Rohner.
The judge, in a “domestic violence judgment,” ordered Rodrigues to stay at least 300 yards from Rohner and to not have any other contact with her.
But Rodrigues violated these rules, sending Rohner threatening messages, she said. She felt helpless in getting his probation officers in New Jersey and Raleigh to address the issue.
“Eventually you just give up,” she said.
She recalled the first time Rodrigues held her down with a gun in Carteret County and her decision to move into a townhome community because it felt safer.
Over the past decade, Rohner said, she had come to accept that dealing with Rodrigues was going to continue to be part of her life. She requested several restraining orders and pleaded with the court system to get him mental health assistance because “I suspected he could snap at any minute.”
Rohner said there have to be more options for people who have protective orders.
“I’m not blaming anybody. I’m not blaming the police, but the system fails,” she said. “I got a piece of paper to protect [me]. … He was on probation, he had an ankle bracelet and they took it off, and they shouldn’t have. They should have known where he was. Why did they take that off his ankle? Why?”
Picking up the pieces
There is still broken glass from the shootout and blood on the floor, Rohner said. Her TV, refrigerator and other items in her home are riddled with bullet holes.
She wonders how she can afford a new place to live and is leaning on a friend who has offered her a place to stay.
Neighbors have been helping. A man who lives behind her helped board up her back door. Thursday night, she had dinner with a friend.
As she deals with the trauma of the violence, there is one eerily positive outcome for Rohner.
“That he is dead,” she said. “I am not sad about that.”
Where to find help with domestic violence
▪ Compass Center for Women and Families: 24/7 domestic violence hotline, 919-929-7122; compassctr.org
▪ Durham Crisis Response Center: 24/7 hotline at 919-403-6562 (English), 919-519-3735 (Spanish); durhamcrisisresponse.org
▪ InterAct: 24/7 hotline at 919-828-7740. Services also available in Spanish; interactofwake.org
▪ N.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence: List of domestic violence programs in every N.C county, nccadv.org/get-help
▪ National Domestic Violence Hotline: 24/7 at 800-799-SAFE (7233); or online chat at thehotline.org/what-is-live-chat
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 1:52 PM with the headline "’I thought I was going to be dead,’ says survivor of Raleigh shootout that left 2 dead."
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