21-year-old man dies after 4 people shot at Raleigh motel. Gun violence rising in city.

One of four people found shot Monday night at a motel inside the Beltline has died, Raleigh police said Tuesday.

Officers responded to the shooting at the Wake Inn on New Bern Avenue at 9:19 p.m., police reported.

They found three adults with gunshot wounds who were taken to a local hospital. A fourth adult, also shot, was taken to WakeMed North by a private car, a Raleigh Police Department news release stated.

Late Tuesday morning, police reported that one of those shot, 21-year-old Kyvonte Taylor, had died. The three other people, who have not been identified, suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The release did not provide additional details. The News & Observer has asked for an update on the conditions of the others and whether police anticipate any charges.

Past violence at or near motel

The Wake Inn has been the site of previous violence. In January 2019, police charged a man with fatally stabbing a 52-year-old man at the motel, The N&O reported.

In March 2021, police investigated a late-night shooting that wounded three people near the Wake Inn, The N&O previously reported.

Meanwhile, shootings in Raleigh are rising.

In 2021, 26 people were fatally shot in the city, up from 22 in 2020 and 19 in 2019, according to Raleigh Police Department statistics. There were a total of 34 homicides in Raleigh last year.

There also were 131 non-fatal shootings last year, up 25% from 105 non-fatal shootings in 2020, and 99 non-fatal shootings in 2019.

More guns, more gun violence

In an interview with The News & Observer, Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson attributed the rise in violence to more guns and fewer police during the pandemic. The statistics reflect a “modest increase” when measured against the city’s growth, she said.

“Our challenge is to make sure that [gun violence] doesn’t outpace the population growth,” Patterson said. “And in order to prevent that, we just have to be very laser-focused on strategies to prevent [it] from happening.”

As traffic stops increased last year, police confiscated 783 firearms as of late November, a 38% increase from 2020, Patterson said.

There were 480 incidents involving stolen guns in 2021, a 28% increase from 2020 and a 48% increase from 2019, police statistics indicate.

“We all know that during the pandemic, many, many people purchased weapons, handguns ... the more handguns you have in circulation in any society, you’re going to see increases in crime,” Patterson said. “In fact, the [federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] did a study on that. And there is a correlation between the number of guns being purchased and violent crime increasing.”

Police are taking a “three-prong approach” that calls for building community relationships and violence prevention programming; identifying problem areas and concentrating patrols there; and partnering with federal law enforcement agencies, like the Drug Enforcement Agency and ATF to investigate and prosecute suspects with violent records.

Staffing is a problem for many law enforcement agencies in the Triangle and across the country.

“Vacancies do have an impact on some of the crime reduction and crime prevention measures that I want to put in place,” Patterson said.

In Durham, where the city recently approved pay increases, detectives and high-ranking members of the Durham Police Department will be joining patrols through March to ease a 13% vacancy rate, The N&O has reported.

Raleigh officials are reviewing Patterson’s requests for pay increases to help hire and recruit more police officers, she said.

Police are asking anyone with information about Monday night’s shootings to contact Raleigh CrimeStoppers at 919-834-HELP or raleighcrimestoppers.org for text and email reporting options. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for anonymous tips that help solve cases.

This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 7:53 AM.