Student robbed 2 people on streets near his home, Raleigh cops say

Police have charged a 19-year-old Heritage High School student with two counts of armed robbery, saying he and two companions held up two people at gunpoint on streets near the student's North Raleigh home.

Detectives arrested Demarcus Lee Murray-Carter of 4205 Greencastle Court on Wednesday morning after questioning him at their offices.

Arrest warrants accuse Murray-Carter of two counts robbery with a dangerous weapon – a silver revolver – and two counts of conspiracy to do that, once on Oct. 24 and again on Oct. 25.

A search warrant that detectives used Tuesday to look through the apartment where Murray-Carter lives said that the first holdup happened in the 3800 block of Bonneville Court and the other happened on Brentwood Road.

As police described the crimes in asking a magistrate to issue the search warrant, the first robbery happened about 9 p.m. when one of three men pointed the gun at the victim and punched him in the face before the trio took his cell phone.

The second robbery, Detective A.P. Kerensky told the magistrate, happened about 5:45 p.m. in the 3800 block of Brentwood Road, and one of three men pistol-whipped the victim before taking a religious pendant, a cell phone and money.

Part of what convinced police to charge Murray-Carter, Kerensky wrote, were Facebook pictures from the day of the second holdup that showed him wearing the clothes that the victim said one of the robbers wore. In pictures from the next day, Murray-Carter appeared to be wearing the pendant taken from the man who was robbed, Kerensky wrote.

The search did not turn up a gun, according to an inventory attached when it was returned to the court clerk’s office Wednesday. Detectives did find 11 cell phones, 654 .22-caliber bullets and four digital scales, it said.

The investigation was continuing as police sought the other two suspects.

Murray-Carter’s bail was set at $250,000. He was scheduled for a Thursday court appearance.

In April, he was put on a year’s probation for misdemeanor convictions for breaking into or entering vehicles.

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Student robbed 2 people on streets near his home, Raleigh cops say."