Ahead of New Year’s Eve, Durham police warn about threat of ‘celebratory’ gunfire
Odell Lyons remembers hearing gunshots, followed by the “ding! ding!” of bullets falling on the roof of his shed.
He saw a woman lying on the ground in front of his driveway on Robinhood Road in Durham.
Thursday, Lyons reflected on New Year’s Eve 2021, a night when Durham police say “celebratory gunfire” killed Deloris Evans Burwell, a 71-year-old woman visiting Lyons’ neighbor.
“Only thing I can remember is before the police got here, I had bullets (fall) at the top of my house,” said Lyons, 72, in a phone interview.
This week, Durham police warned gun owners to be responsible when they ring in the new year. Firing a gun into the air during celebrations is illegal within the city limits of Durham and Raleigh. It’s also dangerous, and can kill unsuspecting people, police say.
“New Year’s Eve should be a time of celebration but, unfortunately, reckless behavior can negatively impact many lives,” Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews said in a statement. “Please take personal responsibility to help make this a safe holiday for everyone.”
Anyone caught discharging a firearm in city limits will be arrested, police say.
“They need to be more responsible with these guns shooting into the air on the holidays,” Lyons said. “You got too many young people who got guns. And they got guns and some of their parents don’t even know what they got.”
Burwell was the second person killed by such gunfire in Durham in a two-year period.
Paulette Thorpe, a 74-year-old mother and grandmother, was killed by a bullet that fell after being fired during Fourth of July celebrations in 2020 while sitting on a friend’s porch. Before she was hit, she had left a family gathering after becoming nervous about the gunshots she heard nearby.
“The one thing she left us to get away from was the thing that killed her,” her nephew Carlos Lyons told The News & Observer in July 2021. “That’s what makes it hard.”
On New Year’s Eve 2019, a bullet fired into the air in downtown Raleigh sent a University of North Carolina student to the hospital. She had gathered on the street to watch the dropping of the acorn when she was shot shortly after midnight.
On Dec. 31, 2021, officers responded to a call for a cardiac arrest about an hour before midnight. While treating Burwell, they learned she had been shot, according to a news release at the time.
The Durham Police Department advised people to call 911 to report gunfire on New Year’s Eve with an exact location and physical description of suspects or vehicles involved, if it can be done safely.
“Sometimes you can’t do anything about it,” Lyons said. “When that time comes, I’m going be in the house.”
This story was originally published December 30, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
