Arrest made after woman fatally shot at Durham motel. Victim’s name released.

Durham police have made an arrest after a woman was killed and a man was injured in a shooting along N.C. 55 in southern Durham late Tuesday night.

Darren Alexander Wright, 32, of Durham, is charged with murder in the death of 48-year-old Tonja Freeman of Durham, police said in a news release Thursday.

Officers responded just before 11 p.m. Tuesday to the scene in the 4500 block of the highway and found two people who had been shot.

Media outlets reported the shooting occurred at the Extended Stay America motel near Interstate 40. Police said the shooting did not occur inside the motel and that it was not a random act.

Freeman was pronounced dead at a hospital. The man, whose name has not been released, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Wright is being held at the Durham County jail without bail.

Police released no motive in this case.

This is at least the third homicide, and the second double shooting, in Durham in the past two weeks.

• On Feb. 21, Montique Shawn Palmer, 35, of Durham, was found fatally shot and a second man was found injured in a car near the intersection of Holloway and Hardee streets east of downtown.
• On Feb. 16, Manuel Caceres-Murillo, 64, of Durham was shot and killed in a neighborhood in the 800 block of Park Avenue, also in the East Durham area.

From Jan. 1-Feb. 18 of this year, 27 people were shot in Durham, seven of them fatally, according to police statistics.

This compares to two people and four people fatally shot during the same time period in the previous two years.

Anyone with information about Tuesday’s shooting is asked to call Investigator J. Justice at 919-560-4440 ext. 29119 or CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200. 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 March 1, 2023 at 7:50 AM.