UPDATE (3:45 p.m.): WRAL reports that Sanford Police have arrested the 15-year-old suspect. WRAL’s new report also identifies the 16-year-old victim as Aaliyah Chalmers. Police didn’t say where they apprehended the suspect, but noted in a news release that he was being held in the Wake County Detention Center.
ORIGINAL STORY: A shooting Saturday left a 48-year-old Sanford man dead and a 16-year-old girl wounded, and city police as of noon Monday were still seeking a 15-year-old suspect whom they intend to charge with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and possession of a firearm by a minor.
Police have said very little else, other than to identify the deceased victim as Monty Leroy Simmons. It’s unclear whether Simmons lived at the address, but Lee County’s GIS map shows that the property at 2218 Dalrymple Street – between Main Street in Jonesboro and South Horner Boulevard, less than a mile from Lee County High School – is owned by someone named Montrose Williams Simmons. Police on Monday declined to comment about to the natire of the relationship between the Simmons, the 15-year-old shooter, and the 16-year-old victim, or whether police believe the shooter is still in the area, “due to the investigation being ongoing.”
WRAL interviewed a woman who lives two doors down from the home. Brenda Buchanan in the segment called Simmons “a good man” and said that not knowing who the suspect was kept her on edge.
WWGP’s Margaret Murchison posted on Facebook that the girl was taken by helicopter to UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, where she was listed in stable condition.
Meanwhile, at least one candidate for local office wasted little time politicizing the tragedy. Shameful.
