Teen sentenced in gang shootout that shocked Durham, linked to 9-year-old’s death
A teen faces up to six years in prison after pleading guilty in two 2019 shootings that grew out of a confrontation between gang members at the Durham County courthouse, court and other documents reveal.
Arlo Smith, now 19, was 17 at the time of the first shooting, which started on Pettigrew Street and damaged at least five cars during a two-car shoot out and chase.
No one was hurt, but many were shocked by the brazen December 2019 shooting in the middle of the day in a downtown area bustling with traffic, restaurant diners and preschool children playing outside.
Smith pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of conspiracy to discharge a weapon into an occupied vehicle in incidents on Dec. 3, 2019, and Dec. 5, 2019, according to a Durham County District Attorney’s Office news release.
Superior Court Judge Michael O’Foghludha sentenced Smith to 20 to 36 months for each count.
Ryan Kenneth Richmond, 26, and Ravone Jyquan Washington, 29, also faced shooting and gun charges but their cases were moved to federal court. Smith’s case remained in Durham due to his age, according to the news release. An unnamed juvenile was also charged.
3 shootings, 1 gang dispute
Federal court documents indicate three shootings, including the one downtown, followed two rival gangs crossing paths at the Durham County courthouse on Dec. 3, 2019.
Since 2017, a task force of local, state and federal officials has been investigating the Eight Trey Gangster Crip gang, which are associated with the Braggtown neighborhood and Oxford Manor, according to federal court documents outlining the cases against Richmond and Washington.
“Investigators determined that the ETG Crips have been heavily involved in drug distribution, shootings and armed robberies in the Durham area,” court documents state.
Two years later, the task force began investigating a violent feud between the Eight Trey Gangster Crips and the O’Block gang, which is affiliated with the Nine Trey Gangster Bloods gang.
“This feud has included multiple shootings and murders since that time,” the court documents state.
Z’Yon Person, 9, was a victim in that dispute when he was shot and killed in a car packed with his family on the way to get snow cones on a hot August evening in 2019, a prosecutor said in Durham County court last year.
The men charged with the killing were associated with the Eight Trey Gangsters and mistook the SUV that Z’Yon was in for the car of someone else involved in their ongoing dispute with the O-Block gang, the prosecutor said.
Instagram message
On the morning of Dec. 3, 2019, Smith, who is affiliated with the O-Block group, posted a live video on his Instagram page saying he would be in court soon. The group publishes its location to taunt its rivals, federal court documents state.
Later, courthouse surveillance footage showed Richmond, who is affiliated with the O-Block, arguing with a Crips member outside a courtroom on the fourth floor. A deputy had to break up the argument after a number of men, including Washington, started to get involved, according to court documents.
Washington, Richmond and other O-Block members then got on an elevator with a Crips member and “appeared to have words with that person,” according to court documents.
The Crips member got out of the elevator, and the O-Block members went back up to the fourth floor to get another member of their group, whom deputies escorted to the elevator.
Then the O-Block members rode back down to the lobby and left the courthouse, heading to Pettigrew Street, where they had parked a stolen silver Hyundai.
A dark Chrysler 300 turned onto Pettigrew and pulled up to the Hyundai.
Downtown car chase
Washington told police he was getting into the Hyundai when the Chrysler pulled up and someone inside started shooting at him.
When they fired at him again on Duke Street, Washington grabbed a pistol sitting in a cup holder to his left and shot back, court documents state.
A witness at a red light reported seeing Washington and Richmond hanging out of the car shooting guns. A bullet struck the back window of the witness’s car, hitting the front dash.
Other surveillance footage shows Smith sitting on the Hyundai’s rear passenger window, firing an AR-style pistol over the top of the car into traffic, on West Chapel Hill Street according to court documents.
The chase ended when the Hyundai pulled into a parking next to Duke Memorial Methodist Church on West Chapel Hill Street.
Children at the church’s nursery were playing outside and caregivers hearing gunshots rushed the them inside.
The men ditched four guns, two of which had been reported stolen, next to cars and fences before they walked toward a gold Nissan Maxima that picked them up on Duke Street, the court documents state.
Three Durham shootings
On Dec. 4, 2019, three O-Block associates who had also been at the courthouse the morning of the downtown shooting, drove through Oxford Manor, which is Eight Trey Gangster Crips territory, and fired at multiple apartments, according to court documents. Those three men were arrested by police, who happened to be on site.
The next day, in retaliation for the Oxford Manor shooting, people opened fire on a corner convenience store that Smith and Richmond were visiting while Washington stood outside. The store’s security video showed Smith and Richmond run from the store with pistols in their hands.
The car with the convenience store shooters sped off before the men got out of the store, but mistakenly they started shooting at another car at a red light before they fled the area, court documents state.
Washington, Richmond plea
Police arrested Washington, Richmond and Smith and an unnamed juvenile within two weeks of the Dec. 3, 2019 shooting.
Richmond pleaded guilty to the U.S. Middle District of North Carolina to in possession of a firearm in January related to the Dec. 3, 2019, shooting. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and then three years of supervised release.
Washington pleaded guilty to that same charge in March in a plea deal that indicated he would serve about eight years and three months in prison. Washington is still awaiting final sentencing.
This story was originally published June 9, 2021 at 9:53 AM with the headline "Teen sentenced in gang shootout that shocked Durham, linked to 9-year-old’s death."
