Have you seen this car? It’s wanted in Durham driveby that injured 3-year-old boy, man

Police released a grainy photo of a car Wednesday they say is connected to a drive-by shooting in Durham that left a 3-year-old boy with life-threatening injuries and also injured an adult.

The vehicle appears to be a 2009 or 2010 Toyota Corolla, police said.

The shooting took place on Fayetteville Street on Monday afternoon,

Officers responded at 4:46 p.m. to a reported gunshot wound in a parking lot behind a Walgreens in the 700 block of Fayetteville Street, just south of the Durham Freeway and downtown.

Based on a preliminary investigation, the shooter drove through the parking lot and fired on a car the man and the young child were sitting in.

The 3-year-old was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The man was taken to the hospital with less severe injuries, police said in a news release.

The Police Department declined to provide an update on the child when The News & Observer asked for his condition on Tuesday.

MAYOR SPEAKS OUT: At a City Council meeting last month, Mayor Leonardo Williams said some Durham neighborhoods are “getting sprayed” with gunfire. He gave ABC11, The News & Observer’s news partner, this statement Monday evening:

“As mayor of one of the coolest cities in America, best places to live, best business establishments, etc, none of that matters until we make the safety of our communities, especially our children, the No. 1 priority in this city,” Williams said.

“It won’t happen until we treat our children with the same outrage we have over street safety, clear-cutting trees, and ceasefires in the Middle East,” he continued. “That starts with community members demanding accountability from themselves and ALL of their government bodies.”

Shootings up this year in Durham

As of June 1, the latest statistics available, 105 people had been shot (fatal and non-fatal shootings) in Durham this year, more than either of the two previous years.

Shootings with injuries are up 40% compared to last year when 75 people had been shot by June 1, police statistics show The number of shootings with injuries so far are roughly equal to 2022, when 102 people had been shot by the same time.

Of those shot this year:

▪ 18 people were killed.

▪ 17 people have been 17 years old or younger, police statistics show. Ten have been 15 or younger.

▪ One was between 1 and 5 years old, making Monday’s victim one of the youngest children shot in the city so far this year.

How to help

Anyone with any information is asked to call Investigator B. Garth at 919-560-4440 extension 29313. You can also call CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200 or online at www.durhamcrimestoppers.org. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards of up to $2,000 for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.

This story was originally published June 10, 2024 at 7:09 PM.