Staff reports
In a press release issued Tuesday night, District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said no criminal charges will be brought against a South Carolina resident who shot and killed Lambert Wilson last fall.
Law enforcement officers arrived in the evening hours of Oct. 20, 2022, to find the 68-year-old Swain County native dead on the sidewalk of El Camino Hotel in Cherokee, an establishment he owned.
Welch said Tuesday that the investigation showed that Leo Pruess, 60, acted in self-defense after Wilson brandished a handgun.
The shooting occurred after an argument in the motel involving Lambert and the couple.
“Although we will never know exactly what occurred that night, after meeting numerous times with the district attorney and Cherokee Indian Police, we understand why the decision not to charge was reached,” Lambert’s family members said in a prepared statement.
“We have suffered a tremendous loss that the family and this community will never recover from,” the family stated.
Welch praised Cherokee Police officers for conducting a thorough and complete investigation, singling out the efforts of lead Detective Jesse Aiken.
“The District Attorney’s Office and Cherokee Indian Police must follow the law and evidence as dictated under North Carolina’s stand-your-ground law,” Welch said. “Based on the evidence and witness accounts, we determined Mr. Preuss was legally justified in using deadly force.”
The Cherokee Indian Police refused to release any statements or public information regarding the investigation that SBI was a secondary agency on, beyond a Facebook post that states they were investigating “an incident” at the hotel.
Preuss and his wife cooperated with officers, including SBI agents who arrived to process the crime scene, according to DA Welch.
The couple agreed to interviews, provided blood samples and fingerprints, and consented to both personal searches and a search of their car, she said.
The couple’s blood samples showed no evidence of either alcohol or narcotics. Lambert had a 0.17 blood alcohol content, according to a toxicology report.
“This tragic event has resulted in the community losing a beloved and well-respected person in Mr. Wilson,” Welch said. “Our sincere condolences go out to his family.”