Four shot, one dead after shooting on LaSalle Street

Ten people have been shot in Durham in the past week.

Friday police announced they have arrested a second suspect who is accused of shooting four of them at a Durham apartment complex Wednesday night.

The quadruple shooting followed two separate shootings with multiple victims last week, including a 17-year-old boy who died.

WHAT HAPPENED WEDNESDAY NIGHT?

Officers were called to Duke University Hospital at 10:13 p.m. Wednesday after four people came in with gunshot wounds, according to police.

One man was pronounced dead soon after he arrived.

Police identified him Thursday afternoon as 27-year-old Nelson Mendez-Vasquez of Durham.

Yeltsin Cinto Orozco, 29, was charged with first-degree murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious bodily injury, and discharging a weapon into occupied property causing serious bodily Injury.

On Friday police announced they have charged a second man, William Antonio SanchezVasquez, 42, with all the same offenses.

The shooting took place at Duke Manor Apartments on South LaSalle Street, just south of the Durham Freeway and close to the hospital.

A woman who was shot suffered life-threatening injuries and two other men suffered non-lifethreatening injuries.

Both Orozco and Sanchez-Vasquez are being held without bail in the Durham County jail. Police have not said what led to the shooting or released any other details.

THE OTHER SHOOTINGS IN THE PAST WEEK

At least 10 people have been shot in Durham this week, including the quadruple shooting Wednesday night, according police.

At 12:09 a.m. Friday, officers were heading to a gunshot call on Woodcroft Parkway when they were stopped on Barbee Road and found a man who had been shot. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

When officers got to Woodcroft Parkway, they found a woman who had been shot. She was also taken to the hospital with serious, but non-lifethreatening injuries. Three empty cars and an apartment with people inside were also hit by bullets.

At 5:39 p.m. Thursday a woman was shot near East Lawson Street and Wabash Street near the McDougald Terrace public housing community. She was taken to the hospital with non-lifethreatening injuries. One residence and a car, neither of which had people inside, were also struck by gunfire.

At 5:30 p.m. Thursday, officers responded to a walk-in patient with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound at Duke University Hospital. On Friday, police said investigators determined this individual was shot on Eva Street at around 5:23 p.m. and that both an occupied residence and an unoccupied residence were struck by gunfire in the incident.

At 3:44 p.m. Thursday police responded after a group of males got into an argument and started shooting at each other at the bus terminal at 515 W. Pettigrew St. A car with people inside it was struck by gunfire. EMS treated one person for minor injuries who fell during the incident No other injuries were reported.

At 4:59 a.m. Wednesday, officers responded to Duke Regional Hospital after a juvenile male was brought in with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. The victim told officers he was shot near the intersection of Guess Road and Horton Road. The shooting remains under investigation.

At 11:58 p.m. Tuesday, officers found a man on Lawndale Avenue who had been shot. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. His car, with several bullet holes, was found near West Knox Street and Alabama Avenue where he had crashed into two parked cars. Investigators think he was in the car when he was shot, according to police. Officers seized a firearm at the scene.

Mayor Leonardo Williams said he spoke with a group of young men outside the bus station after Thursday’s shootout who told him it was the “young cats” stirring things up.

”They live by no code,” Williams said they told him.

With the police “stretched thin,” Chief Patrice Andrews is evaluating how the department

might reorganize to be more efficient, he added.

Andrews was unavailable for an interview Friday, a police spokesperson told The News & Observer, adding that these cases remain under investigation and police cannot say if any of them are connected.

MORE PEOPLE SHOT IN DURHAM THIS YEAR

After trailing last year’s data for most of 2024, more people have now been shot in Durham this year than by the same time last year.

As of May 4, the latest statistics available, there had been at least 66 people shot this year ,up from 64 by the same time in 2023, according to the Police Department. Those numbers were both down from 2022, however, when 87 people had been shot by the same time of the year.

Twelve people shot as of May 4, had died, compared to 16 and 15 people fatally shot by the same time in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

Durham, like many cities, struggles with gun violence

Just last week police investigated two separate shootings with multiple victims each that left a 17-year-old boy and a man dead and three other people with life-threatening injuries.

Shootings are “unfortunately very common this time of year,” Williams said after last week’s gun violence. As the weather gets warmer, ”they’re going outside and there’s not much to do, and they’re beefing with one another.”

He encouraged parents who feel they’ve lost control of their child to reach out and call someone.

”They don’t value life and don’t fear consequences,” he said. “And they are getting younger and younger.”

HOW IS DURHAM RESPONDING TO GUN VIOLENCE?

The city tried a pilot gunshot-surveillance program for a year, then dropped it after a review by Duke University researchers found it got police to shooting scenes more quickly and led to more arrests but did not reduce gun violence in the target areas.

The city and county are also investing in alternatives to traditional policing, including expanding the Bull City United program, which sends trained “violence interrupters,” some of them former gang members, into neighborhoods to de-escalate tensions and try to reduce retaliatory shootings.

Still, the Police Department is operating with 140 vacancies, or about 26% of its 535 sworn (officer) positions, according to the most recent department data.

That means just over 1 in 4 police positions in the city is unfilled.

HOW TO HELP

Police are asking anyone with information about Wednesday night’s shooting to contact Investigator J. Sokal at 919560-4440 ext. 29238 or CrimeStoppers at 919683-1200 or online at www.durhamcrime stoppers.org.

CrimeStoppers pays rewards of up to $2,000 for information leading to arrests in felony cases, and callers never have to identify themselves.

Virginia Bridges contributed to this story.

Mark Schultz: 919-829-8950, @TriangleEditor