A teenager is dead and five suspects are under arrest after what appears to be a drive-by shooting Tuesday night in Robbins.

Authorities say it may have started with an argument earlier in the day.

The victim, Tomas Pascual, 18, was talking with his brother when a red Camaro made a sweeping circle turn to pull up beside them. Words were exchanged, and a question was asked. Pascual had just lifted his hands in reply when the shot that killed him was fired.

The shooting occurred on the side of N.C. 705 at the end of Hemp Street just across from Tabernacle Methodist Church. The car with the shooter sped away.

"There were at least five or six young men standing there when he was shot," Robbins Police Chief Jeff Sheffield said.

Meanwhile, postings on the MySpace Web page of one of the accused killers shows him holding a handgun. Another shows a red Camaro. There are also numerous pictures of Pascual flashing what are believed to be gang symbols on his MySpace page.

Sheffield arrested five people, booking them in at the Moore County jail before the magistrate at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Sheffield charged Michael Lee Stidham Jr., 18, of 4596 Spies Road, in Star; and Briant Andrew McKinney, 16, of 475 Hemp St. in Robbins, with first-degree murder. He also charged McKinney's brother, 17-year-old Trae Bradley McKinney, and their mother and stepfather, Benjamin Allen Reynolds III, 35, and Tara Lynette Reynolds, 34, of the same Robbins address, with being accessories after the fact.

"There had been an altercation earlier in the day at the home of one of the suspects," Sheffield said. "Pascual wasn't there. Somebody else hit Trae McKinney. It's public record, because a complaint has been filed."

Because of concerns about possible retaliations, nearby North Moore High School was under heavy security Wednesday and again Thursday. Sheriff's deputies were checking those entering and leaving the school.

The Pascual brothers had been standing on a corner across from the church cemetery and the old Robbins Primary School, a few doors down from their sister's Hemp Street home. Police responded to the scene and began investigating the shooting. Pascual was taken to a nearby park so a helicopter could land and airlift him to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, where he later died.

Cries of "Sheriff! Sheriff! Red Camaro! Shooter! Red Camaro!" came from several young people. A vehicle of that description had torn away from the Econo station just down the street and sped away toward the old Robbins Mill site.

Fire and rescue personnel were called to help Robbins police and sheriff's deputies block streets. Officers measured out evidence on the ground at the end of Hemp Street, where a circle of tire tracks traced a path down N.C. 705 that circled and continued in the original direction.

'Really Outgoing'

On Wednesday morning, Pascual's father and sister were at her home with friends, just down the street from the scene of the shooting. They handed out photos of Pascual while waiting to hear from the office of the state medical examiner so funeral plans could be made.

"He was a really outgoing person," said his niece, Ester Pascual. "He loved playing soccer. Soccer was everything to him. He was really good at it. He liked meeting new people. He was really cool with anybody that was really cool with him. If you disrespected him, he would disrespect you back. But all in all, he was really a nice person. Very calm and very funny."

His sister, Maria Pascual, speaks little English. Her niece translated for her as she nodded softly, holding back the tears.

"I heard that they were walking, and they (the red Camaro) just took a turn," Ester Pascual said. "I guess they were saying something. Tomas threw up his hands, like, 'What?', and that's when they shot him."

She thought he had been hit only once by a shot from a .22-caliber weapon and that he would survive.

"It took 35 minutes for the ambulance, and then it took 20 minutes for the helicopter," she said. "I thought if they could have gotten him faster, he would have made it."

Alfred Francisco, Pascual's cousin, said the shooting occurred about 7:15 p.m. Tomas and Maria's father, also Tomas Pascual, stood with the rest of the family members on the little front porch the next day, silent and brokenhearted as they had a brief prayer, making the sign of the cross at the end.

Services are expected to take place at Kennedy Funeral Home, they said, once they hear from the medical examiner and are able to make plans.

MySpace Presence

Pascual had turned 18 just before Christmas. On his MySpace Web page, he posted hopes and dreams, things he liked, confessions and boasts.

His favorite food, he said, was pizza. He liked Pepsi, not Coke. He liked hot chocolate, dogs more than cats, iced tea and both scary and funny movies. Greatest fear? -- "losing the one I love," he wrote in teen-Web-style (as "7o$iNG Da 1 I LuV") on his page.

Pascual said he didn't remember his longest relationship, thought himself "in between" being muscular and skinny, and wanted to go to college. His goal for this year, where he was a senior at Pinckney Academy, was "to graduate."

He thought his best feature was his hands. Many of his MySpace pictures show those hands displaying what are thought to be gang symbols -- though such hand gestures have spread widely in popular teen culture and are frequently seen in online videos and social networking sites like MySpace.

Pascual said he hoped to get married "some day" and have children. Also he said he hoped someday to visit Brazil.

A different MySpace page belonging to suspect Stidham shows a different combative symbol, one appropriated from an earlier age by groups like the Ku Klux Klan -- a picture of a Confederate battle flag. Another shot shows the red Camaro. In another picture, he is holding a handgun.

According to his Web page, he "kinda" got along with his parents and said his best friends were "my folks" -- but that could have been a gang reference meaning Folk Nation.

Contact John Chappell at 783-5841 or by e-mail at jchappell@thepilot.com.