By Nathan Hardin
nhardin@salisburypost.com
Just yesterday, Por Ye Lor sat in his driveway at 1102 Arbor Drive assembling a Yamaha toy four-wheeler for his children.
Hours later, police say, he shot and killed his wife then himself as she worked at a store in Concord.
Few details have been released surrounding the domestic dispute that caused Lor to shoot the mother of their three children, Zoua Xiong, at about 5:20 p.m. near the cash registers in Lowe’s on Dale Earnhardt Boulevard at the Concord-Kannapolis line.
Sources on the scene Monday night told the Post that the couple was arguing and Xiong, a Lowe’s cashier who went by the name “Vivian” to some coworkers, was shot in the head by 31-year-old Lor before he turned the handgun on himself.
Some of the neighbors around the couple’s Meadowbrook home were unaware of the shooting and shocked to hear the tragic news about a family they regarded as “quiet” and “peaceful.”
Other neighbors watched as two Salisbury Police cars, along with vehicles from the Department of Social Services, arrived at the house Monday night. They stayed about three hours and Social Services caseworkers escorted the couple’s 6-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 2 and 4, from the home.
“The kids were crying,” a neighbor said. “They took a couple of arms full of clothes out.”
Broken Tonka toys and a worn-out teddy bear lay in the front yard on Tuesday. The newly assembled miniature four-wheeler sat beside its box in the garage.
Tom Brewer, program administrator for children’s services at the Department of Social Services, said the children have been placed in foster care. The agency is assessing family members and hopes to place the children with relatives today or Wednesday, he said.
Brewer said Social Services has never previously been called to the home.
Xiong worked for Lowe’s as a cashier for six years. Lowe’s spokeswoman Karen Cobb said grief counselors would be available at the store to help employees deal with Monday’s incident.
Neighbors around the home said the family kept to themselves but could be seen outside playing with their children or tending to the garden.
Xiong, 25, had planted a garden for two years, said a neighbor who did not want to be identified.
“I saw her out in the yard most every day doing some watering,” he said.
Lor was also seen outside playing with his kids, the neighbor said. The family had recently installed an in-ground pool.
“To watch him play in the pool with his kids — they had a big time with that,” the neighbor said.