Investigators had no luck Monday trying to locate a handgun used in Sunday's fatal shooting and attempted robbery at Pizza Hut.

A dive team from the Wilson County Sheriff's Office spent Monday morning combing the shallow water of a creek off Old Black Creek Road near Charleston Street. Later in the day, Wilson police scoured the kudzu-covered area around the creek looking for the weapon. Neither had any success. Investigators plan to resume the search today.

Investigators were looking where murder suspect John Douglas Holden Jr. told them he had thrown a handgun Sunday morning after the robbery attempt at Pizza Hut, Sgt. W.S. Bissette said. Holden, Cory Lee Whitted, 25, and Antonio Deaundra Barnes, 19, are alleged to have entered Pizza Hut around 12:30 a.m. Sunday with their faces covered. All three allegedly were armed with guns.

Brandon Alexander Bass, 20, Caesar Raya, 18, and a female employee, whose name has not been released, were the only ones in the restaurant at the time. Whitted had worked at the restaurant earlier that night.

The handgun being sought is the weapon Whitted allegedly used to shoot Bass and Raya, after they recognized him, a fellow Pizza Hut employee, during the robbery. Bass died at the scene. Raya is recovering at Pitt County Memorial Hospital.

Whitted, Holden and Barnes have each been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon.

News that Bass had been killed in the robbery came as a shock to those who knew him.

Helen Justice lives down the road from Bass and his family, and her husband works with Bass' father at Firestone. Her husband called her from work Sunday to tell her that Bass had been killed.

Afterwards she called her 29-year-old daughter in Cary who used to babysit Bass when he was a boy.

"It really shook her up," Justice said. "... We are all taking this hard."

Theresa Swain, communications director at the United Way of Wilson County Inc., learned Monday morning of Bass' death. Bass' mother, Karen, had worked with her at the United Way.

She had often seen Brandon Bass when he would visit his mother at the office or to help volunteer on occasions.

"Being a small staff, we all knew each other's family," Swain said. Her daughter had tutored Bass' sister.

"It stunned us all to hear about this," she said.

"It's such a sad way to lose a child. ... It made me want to go home today and hug both my kids,"

Swain remembered Bass as "a very pleasant young man, very polite."

"Basically he was just a good kid," she said. "My heart goes out to them (the Bass family). ... It really hit home for me."

Bass graduated in 2003 from Hunt High School.

Raya is a rising senior and soccer player at Beddingfield High School.