4 shot, 2 killed in Durham shootings as gun violence rises
Two men are dead and two more are in the hospital after Durham police responded to three separate shootings since Sunday.
Just after midnight Monday, officers responded to gunshots near Lednum and Leon streets, north of Interstate 85 near Brogden Middle School.
People at the scene told the officers that a man had been shot and had been taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Police then found a man in the 2300 block of Lednum Street who also had been shot, according to a news release. He died at the scene.
The Durham Police Department is asking anyone with information to contact Investigator D.N. Hall at 919-560-4440 ext. 29319 or CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200 or www.durhamcrimestoppers.org.
The shooting followed an earlier incident around 6 p.m. Sunday, in which officers found a man with a gunshot wound in the same block of Lednum Street, according to ABC11, The News & Observer’s newsgathering partner.
That man was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, ABC11 reported.
Police have not released the names of the men who were shot in the two incidents and are trying to determine if the shootings are connected.
A third shooting happened Tuesday on Holloway and Brye streets east of downtown around 9:40 a.m.
Officers found a man who had been shot. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Holloway Street was closed for several hours between Raynor Street. and Guthrie Avenue while officers investigated the shooting.
The department has not released the name of the man who died or other details.
Anyone with information can contact Investigator D. Johnson at 919-560-4440 ext. 29541 or CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200 or www.durhamcrimestoppers.org..
CrimeStoppers pays up to $2,000 cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases, and callers never have to identify themselves.
Shootings up, homicides down
Durham continues to wrestle with gun violence. Shootings with injuries were up 19% year-over-year, as of Oct. 19, according to the latest statistics available from the police department.
A total of 188 people had been shot, up from 158 people by the same time last year, the statistics show. Twenty-six of those shot this year have died.
Total killings in Durham are down this year, however.
▪ As of Nov. 2, there had been 31 reported homicides in Durham.
▪ That was down from 42 reported homicides by the same time in 2023 and 39 in 2022, police statistics show.
Meanwhile, the police department, like some other area law enforcement agencies, continues to face a major shortage of officers. As of June 30, officer staffing stood at 74% with 396 of 534 sworn-officer positions filled.
At the same time, city leaders have ended two programs that aimed to curb crime.
▪ The City Council voted to end ShotSpotter, a gunshot-surveillance system after a study by a Duke University researcher found the audio sensors got police to shooting scenes more quickly but did not reduce the number of shootings.
▪ Durham County recently ended Bull City United, a program funded by the city and county that employed former gang members and others to defuse neighborhood conflict. That decision came after after several outreach workers were charged with crimes.
