Cody Demontry Gurley, 21, was pronounced dead at Duke Hospital, police said. Gurley and two other men were in a Honda Accord near the intersection of Fayetteville and Ramseur streets late Friday afternoon when a white Jeep Cherokee pulled up and someone fired a shot. The Honda then ran off the road near East Main and Elizabeth streets and struck a power pole. The Jeep pulled up to the Honda, and more shots were fired. Police have no description of suspects.

Gurley, who was a passenger in the Honda, is the city's 24th homicide this year, compared with 19 for all of 2006. He had been convicted of robbery and driving offenses. Gurley's family could not be reached for comment.

Detectives don't have a motive in the shooting, but authorities have said Deshaun Moshea Mitchell, the driver of the Honda, is a known gang member, and he is charged in two homicides. Mitchell, 24, was wounded in the Friday attack and remains in the hospital.

Police say Mitchell was part of a street gang that initiated a crime spree that included three homicides and five shootings. He was charged in the May 2004 killing of a 30-year-old man and was arrested the following month. While in jail, Mitchell was also charged with killing a 22-year-old man.

Mitchell's co-defendant in the May 2004 killing, Tyrone Lamont Dean, was sentenced in August to life in prison.

Mitchell has a list of convictions, including drug possession, resisting arrest and weapons possession.

A court date scheduled for next week will determine when Mitchell will face trial in the May 2004 slaying. Such cases may take awhile to go to trial for various reasons, said Stormy Ellis, a Durham assistant district attorney who handles gang-related cases.

"A lot of people think murder cases get worse with age because witnesses disappear," said Ellis, who is not handling Mitchell's murder cases. "Sometimes they become better because witnesses become less afraid to come forward and we get more corroborating evidence, like we find a gun."

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