At least 275 people have been shot in Durham this year. A 15-year-old died Sunday.

This story was updated at 9:25 a.m. Nov. 11, 2020, to report that the city plans to hold a news conference about the recent gun violence on Thursday, Nov. 12.

A 15-year-old boy killed in downtown Durham this weekend was shot three blocks from the new police headquarters.

The teen was shot several times from a passing car Sunday morning on East Main Street, the Durham Police Department said in a news release.

Police still have not released the boy’s name, but CBS 17 and a GoFundMe page seeking donations for his funeral identified him as Anthony Adams, a ninth grader at Southern High School, according to the TV station.

Marion Bailey, a member of The Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham also confirmed Adams’ identity to The News & Observer.

Adams is the latest casualty in the city as gun violence has skyrocketed.

He was the 13th child 15 years old or younger shot in Durham this year, most of them non-fatally.

As of Saturday, a total of 274 people had been shot in Durham this year, according to statistics police provided upon a public information request from The N&O. Twenty-four of those people were killed.

The number of people shot is up nearly 72% from the same time last year when 159 people had been shot in the Bull City.

With two months to go, this year’s non-domestic firearm assaults — which includes non fatal shootings and incidents where a gun is displayed but not fired — have now surpassed the total number of firearms assaults reported in all of 2019 or all of 2018, the last year available on the department’s online statistics page.

‘You can hear a shooting at any time here’

Adams was shot near the intersection of Angier Avenue and East Main Street, a street corner with a small, triangular park.

On one side of the park is the former brick Durham Hosiery Co. building, which now has 151 apartments, mostly for people over 62. On the other side are more apartments, where families sat outside Monday in the autumn breeze.

Anna Williams, a 79-year-old retired seamstress, has lived at the Hosiery Mill Apartments for six years. The Mill, as she calls it, has been regularly struck by stray bullets, she said. Windows are replaced when they get shattered, but bullet holes remain in the blinds and screens, some of them covered in tape.

Williams’ apartment does not face the street, but “I fear for other people who face Angier Avenue,” she said.

“Our senior citizens are having to hit the floor, and they need to call 911 just to get up,” she continued. One man whose window has been shot through uses a wheelchair, she said.

“You can hear a shooting at any time here,” she said.

Adams was shot at 10:19 a.m., according to police.

Neighborhood benches have been removed to keep people from gathering, Williams said. Large concrete slabs remain in their absence.

The new police headquarters opened in late 2018, but gun violence continues in the neighborhood, she said.

“I don’t think they do their job,” Williams said. “They’re afraid.”

Gang members wreaking havoc, says police chief

Police Chief C.J. Davis has said the coronavirus, young people being out of school and changes in jail incarceration have created an environment for gangs to “wreak havoc.”

Individuals who are members of gangs are shooting at each other no matter where they are, often over personal disputes, instead of protecting and fighting on a particular turf, she said last month on CityLife, the city’s public affairs program.

“This activity creates an unsafe environment for other individuals that are just moving about their normal daily life, just sitting in a car at a traffic light or on their front porch,” Davis said.

In a statement Tuesday, a department spokesperson repeated broad steps that police are taking.

“The Durham Police Department is constantly reviewing, adjusting and reevaluating our approaches in an attempt to offer the best service we can to our community, utilizing all of the resources at our disposal,” spokesperson Kammie Michael wrote in an emailed statement to The N&O.

“We have continued to implement proactive and preventive measures, one initiative provides increased visibility of officers weekly in the most impacted areas,” Michael wrote. “This also provides a faster response to gun-related calls for service. Officers assigned to this initiative can be deployed throughout the city as needed.”

The N&O emailed Michael, asking what steps Davis thinks the department could take to make people in the neighborhood feel safer, but did not receive a response Tuesday afternoon.

Mayor Steve Schewel and Davis are expected to address gun violence at a news conference Thursday.

Children dying from gun violence

While shootings are up, the number of people killed this year is down.

As of Nov. 7, there had been 24 fatal shootings in Durham, compared to 29 by the same time last year.

Forty-three children and young people under the age of 18 have been shot this year. Several have died.

▪ Tyvien McClean, 12, died from his injuries July 20, five days after a bullet burst through a second-floor window during a birthday party on East Weaver Street. He was a sixth-grader at Lowe’s Grove Middle School

▪ Michael Harris, 15, was fatally shot Aug. 23 in on Seven Oaks Road. The student at Carter Community Charter School wanted to a chef, his mother told The News & Observer.

Anyone with information about Sunday’s shooting is asked to call police at 919-560-4440, ext. 29529 or CrimeStoppers at 919-683-1200. CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.

This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 3:01 PM with the headline "At least 275 people have been shot in Durham this year. A 15-year-old died Sunday.."