Fatal shooting sends 9-year-old boy running, Durham leaders searching for answers to crime
A Sunday night shooting in Durham sent nearby residents running for cover and left one man dead.
Police were called to the Lynnhaven Apartments complex in the 900 block of Wadesboro Street just before 9 p.m. They found 32-year-old Jerome Edward Fogg of Raleigh lying dead in the street near a playground and multiple shell casings around his body.
A father and his 9-year-old son told WRAL News they heard the gunshots and called 911.
"Me and my friend, we were just playing and stuff, because me and my dad just got home from football practice, and we just heard gunshots," the boy said. "I ran to the house because I didn't want to get shot."
"I saw a man lying dead in the parking lot," said Joe Murdock, another witness. "I walked up, I saw no breathing, blood everywhere. It’s just a shame because the kids were out here playing, and gunshots just rang out. They got to run and get low, very discouraging. We got to do better."
The shooting was Durham's 23rd homicide so far this year, up 29 percent from this time last year.
Durham City Council last month removed money to fund Police Chief C.J. Davis' request for 18 more police officers from the city's proposed 2019-20 budget.
Council members Mark Anthony Middleton and DeDreana Freeman, who both voted to keep the money for the extra officers in the budget, said Monday that they were upset to learn that a 9-year-old had to run from gunfire in the city.
"[I] just feel utter disgust and horror that any resident should have to experience that, but particularly a 9-year-old child," Middleton said.
"No parent anywhere in the country wants their child to go through this," Freeman said. "I’ve got two 10-year-olds and a 13-year-old. We live in a neighborhood where we hear gunshots all the time."
The City Council is split between members who believe more police would help reduce crime and other who say Durham should do more to address poverty, unemployment and other causes of crime. Freeman said.
"I’m not sure that we have a plan to address that," she said when asked what city leaders are doing to address local crime.
Middleton noted that Mayor Steve Schewel has proposed providing more affordable housing in Durham, and the city has apprenticeship programs to provide more jobs to young people.
"There are things that the City Council is doing from housing to economic opportunity, but my argument is that we will not see fruit for many of those initiatives for years down the pipe. So what do we do now?" he said.
While long-term issues need to be addressed, "we can’t say something like that to a 9-year-old right now," Middleton said.
"There are some things we need to do, I believe, in the short term as a city while we continue to work on strategic intervention," he said. "I hope we don’t need more incidents like this to recalibrate the conversation we’re having in our city."
Police asked that anyone with information about the shooting call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 919-683-1200.
