Fort Bragg Special Ops man arrested on firearms charges after authorities called to investigate death

Nicholas Ranstad/ RSW Regional Jail

WARREN COUNTY – A Fayetteville, North Carolina man arrested Saturday by Warren County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were investigating a death at a Linden home posted a $10,000 secured bond and was released from the Rappahannock-Shenandoah-Warren Regional Jail Tuesday afternoon, according to jail records.

Nicholas Ranstad, 40, of Fayetteville, North Carolina has not been charged with killing the occupant of the home. He was, however, charged with reckless handling of a firearm and discharging a firearm inside a building.

According to Warren County General District Court records, WCSO deputies responded to a call in the 200-block of Doom Peak Road in Linden regarding a man with a gunshot wound to the head.

A complaint states that arriving deputies encountered Ranstad at the scene, then advised him of his Miranda rights, after which he admitted that he entered the house by picking a window lock. He told authorities he wanted to “check on the welfare” of the home’s occupant.

When Ranstad saw the man dead from a gunshot wound to the head, he told deputies that he “became upset” and used one of the firearms he carried on his person to shoot  four rounds inside the residence, the complaint stated.

The man who sustained the fatal gunshot wound has not been identified by officials, nor have the results of an autopsy been made public.

Officials say the case remains active and the investigation continues; it is not known if more charges will be filed.

According to a bail determination checklist completed by the Sheriff’s Office, Ranstad is employed by the special operations command at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, though it is unclear whether Ranstad is on active military duty. Photographs and information on the website Team Ranstad.org suggest the man arrested in Warren County Saturday appears to be the same man holding a United States record for the longest kill with a sniper rifle, set in Afghanistan in January 2008, though inquiries to the website remained unanswered at the time this story was published.

Photos taken from TeamRanstad.org depict Nicholas Ranstad posing with his Barret M107 rifle and (below) with the rifle’s designer, Ronnie Barrett.