Action News has learned that Officer Michael Horan was a member of the Beach Haven Beach Patrol for more than two decades before joining the Greensboro Police Department in 2018.
Officer Horan was fatally shot while responding to a call at a Food Lion just two days before Christmas. The suspect, now identified as 34-year-old Tarell Isaac McMillian, also led police on a high-speed chase before he was eventually taken into custody hours later and 150 miles away from the grocery store.
Greensboro Police Department said Horan was an excellent officer with an outstanding reputation. He was also a husband and father.
Horan served in the department's patrol bureau.
The North Carolina Sheriff's Association called the shooting "a senseless tragedy" and added that it "demonstrates the dangers that law enforcement officers face every day they are on duty."
"He just made people laugh"
Michael Lawrence is the former chief of the Beach Haven Beach Patrol. He described Horan as a consummate professional.
"He was just constantly scanning, looking. He would help people off the beach, walk them home," Lawrence said.
Horan completed boot camp for the U.S. Coast Guard in 2000, going on to serve as a maritime enforcement specialist.
"While he was doing his basic training in Cape May, in his free time, he would come up and help us out," Lawrence said.
Now his fellow officers and fellow guards are mourning Horan, known to many as "Junior" on the beach.
"He just made people laugh. He made people comfortable. You just wanted to be around him," Lawrence said. "He was one of those magnetic type of individuals."
How the shooting and chase unfolded
Officer Horan was called to the Food Lion store on Lawndale Drive just off Interstate 840 in northern Greensboro after reports came in just before 11 a.m. Monday of a man with a firearm inside the store.
The State Bureau of Investigation said that shortly after Horan arrived, he encountered the suspect and a brief struggle ensued. Greensboro police say McMillian then pulled out a gun and shot the officer before getting in a car and driving away.
Horan did not have time to draw or fire his weapon, the SBI said.
"Circumstances of what led to the shooting are currently being investigated," Assistant Police Chief MJ Harris said during a news conference Monday afternoon.
According to the SBI, the chase began in Johnston County when deputies spotted the suspect vehicle and began to pursue it. Sampson County deputies joined in and then the Highway Patrol took over.
The chase ended at Exit 355 (NC-403) near Warsaw at the Duplin County line.
The SBI said charges were pending.
Horan is the second Greensboro police officer killed in the past 12 months. Officer Philip Dale Nix was off-duty when he was shot and killed on Dec. 30, 2023, at a Sheetz convenience store while attempting to stop a crime in progress. Three people were arrested in Nix's shooting death.