Teenager shot dead, homeowner kills alleged intruder: Weekly Homicide Tracker
A 19-year-old was shot and killed in Raleigh last week.
The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun now list the Triangle’s most recent homicides online in this new weekly roundup.
An interactive map, a searchable database, and links to our stories provide details on each death and the status of the investigation.
We are reassessing how we report homicides and violent crime.
▪ We want to rely less, especially on initial stories, on official sources alone.
▪ We want to emphasize trends and tell more about those killed and those affected by loss and violence in their communities.
▪ We want to create time in our reporters’ schedules to go deeper in search of better stories.
To do this, we may forgo separate stories on deaths when there is little information and sometimes not even a victim’s name.
The new homicide tracker, however, will include all violent deaths. (See below.) With the map, you can hover on a dot, learn the basic details and see the location of all homicides. With the database, you will be able to search for incidents by name.
Know that as you do this, we are working to learn more about each case, about the victim and the ripples their death has in the community.
If you know one of the victims of the homicides listed below and would like to tell their story, please contact reporters Colleen Hammond at chammond@newsobserver.com or Aaron Sánchez-Guerra at asanchezguerra@newsobserver.com
These are the homicides in the Triangle from Oct. 10- 24
Raleigh homicides
Date: Oct. 15
Victim: Richard Harris
Age: 55
Location: 1300 block of Durlain Drive
Arrest: Christopher Plantier, 27, has been charged with murder in Harris’s death
What we know:
Richard Harris, 55, was shot on the 1300 block of Durlain Drive in Raleigh. He was taken to the hospital where he later died of his injuries. On Friday, Christopher Plantier was arrested and charged with murder in Harris’s death.
Date: Oct. 21
Victim: Taliyah Watson
Age: 19
Location: 1300 block of Sawyer Road
Arrest: Jordan Sanders, 23, and A’shante Freeman, 21, have been charged with murder in Watson’s death
What we know:
Taliyah Watson, age 19, was shot and killed shortly after midnight on the 1300 block of Sawyer Road in Raleigh. Two people have been arrested and charged with murder in Watson’s death.
Durham homicides
Date: Oct. 18
Victim: Jerry Miles
Age: 33
Location: 900 block of East Main Street
Arrest: Unnamed suspect
What we know:
One man was shot and killed on the 900 block of East Main Street in Durham around 9 p.m. Police said this was an isolated incident and a suspect was taken into custody.
Read more:
Man shot and killed just a few steps from Durham police headquarters is identified
Wake County homicides
Date: Oct. 23
Victim: Steven Dallas Contestable
Age: 34
Location: 100 block of Abercrombie Road in Wake Forest
Arrest: None
What we know:
No charges have been filed after a homeowner shot and killed a man who was allegedly attempting to break into his Wake Forest home. Police claim the homeowner gave “repeated verbal warnings” before shooting and killing Steven Dallas Contestable, 34.
Read more:
Homeowner shoots and kills a man trying to break into a Wake Forest house
Orange County homicides
No new homicides were reported in Orange County between Oct. 10- 24.
Database editor David Raynor contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 24, 2023 at 12:45 PM.