RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Police said a suspect is in custody after a 15-year-old was shot near Moore Square Magnet Middle School in downtown Raleigh on Monday afternoon.
According to the Raleigh Police Department, officers responded to a shooting in a gravel parking lot in the 300 block of South Person Street.
When officers arrived on scene, they found a teenager with a gunshot wound, police said.
Raleigh police said the suspect detained in the incident, later identified as 22-year-old Steven Mark Stanley, was arrested. He’s charged with assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and possession of a firearm by a felon, police said Monday night.
The victim, identified as a 15-year-old boy, is currently in critical condition, police said.
RPD officials told CBS 17 said the victim is not a student at the school.
Demetrius Barrett has lived in the area for more than a decade and said while he often hears fights, a shooting is unusual.
“I still feel safe,” Barrett said. “It’s just you just got to keep your head on swivel all the time anyway, so it’s not really anything, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s a shooting next door.'”
The school said in a message to families that the school went into a Code Red lockdown at 2:52 p.m. due to police activity in the area.
Under the advisement of police, the school entered Code Green at 2:59 p.m.
A spokesperson for Wake County schools said the school was dismissed at the time of the lockdown.
The shooting is a block away from the GoRaleigh Station, which is an area city leaders and Raleigh Police want to make safer.
Gregory Bassi hopes they can.
“It seems like there’s been a lot more violence downtown, a lot more crime,” Bassi said. “You know, over the 10 years, this is probably the first time where sometimes, you know, when I’m walking the pup late at night, where I do sometimes feel a little uncomfortable for the first time.”
The city is looking at hiring private security for the area near Moore Square.
Last week, Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson stressed her department is taking a zero tolerance approach to crime in the downtown area.
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Bassi said he now sees more police officers around Moore Square.
“So definitely within the past month there’s been an increase in that, and I think that’s going to go a long way just having police presence there to deter crime, at least in that particular area,” Bassi said.
The investigation into the Monday afternoon shooting remains ongoing.
