Dozens of shell casings found outside Durham home where girl was shot, boy injured

Police found dozens of shell casings outside a Durham home where an 8-year-old girl was shot and an 11-year-old boy injured, court documents show.

The bullets left multiple holes in the duplex. They cut through the front of the home, destroying banisters on the second-story porch, and, in some cases, traveling through the house and out the back.

Around 12:30 a.m. Monday neighbors heard gunshots ring through Franklin Village at the corner of Blacknall Street and McNeil Lane, located near Eastway Elementary School and the Durham Rescue Mission.

Witnesses saw two men get out of a light-colored SUV in a nearby parking lot and fire weapons toward the home on the 600 block of McNeil Lane, a Durham Police Department search warrant states.

The casings — a metal jacket housing the bullet that discharges when a gun is fired — were found in the grass near the parking lot.

The girl was shot in the back and and the boy’s arm was injured by debris, police have said. Their injuries don’t appear to be life-threatening, police said.

One of the children was in a second-floor bedroom, a Durham search warrant states. Another was in a room on the third floor.

It was far from the first shooting in the neighborhood.

In an apartment building across the street, screens are still torn from bullet holes, neighbors said. A Durham police report indicates a shooting was reported at 8:30 p.m. April 30 that damaged three cars and a window and/or wall. There were four people home at the time, including one juvenile, the report states.

Resident Doris Pettiford, 62, was in a deep sleep when the bullets started flying into the neighboring apartment in the duplex Monday.

“I just heard all that banging,” she said. “And that is when I was like, ‘Is that a shooting?’ and I jumped up and ran to see if the kids were OK.”

Her three grandchildren, ages 10, 11 and 13, were frozen in fear, she said.

When the gunfire stopped, the family eased down the stairs and found two bullet marks on their door and the front of the home.

The many bullets also left holes in some of her neighbors’ upstairs balcony rail balusters, even cutting one in half.

While Pettiford still feels safe in her neighborhood, she said she is going to have to convince her grandchildren.

After the shooting, one had a nightmare that the shooter had returned and another crawled into her bed because he was scared to sleep in his room.

“He just said he would feel better if he could sleep close to somebody,” Pettiford said.

This story was originally published July 16, 2019 at 11:58 AM.