Durham police release name of 16-year-old boy found dead in car outside hospital
A 16-year-old boy was found dead in a car outside Duke University Hospital early Tuesday, Durham police said.
Police said they are investigating the death as a homicide. It appears to be the city’s 21st homicide of the year, according to Police Department statistics.
Officers responding at about 12:30 a.m. found Duwayne Clay Jr. of Durham dead from an “apparent gunshot wound,” police said in a news release.
The teenager was shot at another location in Durham, Duke spokesman Mike Schoenfeld said in an email Tuesday morning.
A driver in a stolen car drove the boy to the front of the emergency department access road and then ran from the car, Schoenfeld said.
Clay was a student at Southern School of Engineering and Sustainability, but he withdrew in November, according to a Durham Public Schools spokesperson. A reporter stopped by the 16-year-old’s home Tuesday, but a man there said the family didn’t want to comment.
Anyone with information is asked to contact investigators at 919-560-4440 or CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200.
There were 17 homicides in Durham as of May 18, according to the Durham Police Department website. That was up from 11 during the same period in 2018 and seven during the same period in 2017.
Three more people were killed last week, according to department news releases.
All told, reported violent crime — aggravated assault, robbery, forcible rape and homicide — was up 16.75 percent in Durham as of May 18, compared to the same period last year.
Efforts to reach Police Chief C.J. Davis for comment after last week’s three homicides were unsuccessful. On Tuesday, a police spokesman said Davis was unavailable for an interview.
This story was originally published May 28, 2019 at 7:50 AM.
