2 shot, 1 killed in Durham. Over 200 people have been shot in the Bull City this year
Durham police are investigating two Wednesday night shootings, one of them fatal, in the McDougald Terrace public housing community.
Officers responded to the 1200 block of East Lawson Street at 10:43 p.m., the Durham Police Department said in a news release. The location is between Durham Technical Community College and N.C. Central University.
A man, identified Monday as 45-year-old Lamarcus Alston of Durham, had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead on the scene.
It was the second shooting at the apartment complex that night. The earlier shooting, in which a man suffered life-threatening injuries, happened on Ridgeway Avenue around 6:20 p.m.
Police have not provided any other details about the shootings or said whether they might be connected.
Shootings, staffing and response times
As of Nov. 23, there had been 209 people shot in Durham, 30 of them fatally, police statistics show.
That’s up from 181 people who were shot by the same time last year, when 36 people were killed. .
During a City Council meeting last week, Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton lamented the prevalence of guns and younger perpetrators in Durham but said the Bull City is not unique.
“You know, there are guns everywhere,” he said. “This is the United States of America. There are more guns than people. ... It’s really easy to get your hands on a gun here in our country. This is an American problem.”
Staffing and response times, however, continue to be challenges for the Durham Police Department, like for some other law enforcement agencies across the Triangle.
The department has just 388 of its 534 sworn-officer positions filled, a vacancy rate of 27%, according to its latest report.
It’s also taking an average of 6 minutes and 49 seconds to respond to priority 1 calls,, just over a minute longer than the goal of averaging 5 minutes and 48 seconds, the report shows.
The department is answering 47% of calls in under 5 minutes, short of its goal of 57% of calls.
If you have possible information about Wednesday’s shootings, police ask you to contact Investigator B. Garth at 919-560-4440 ext. 29313 or Durham CrimeStoppers at www.durhamcrimestoppers.org or 919-683-1200.
This story was originally published November 29, 2024 at 10:34 AM.