By Jonathan Drew
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. — The man suspected of opening fire this week on two victims in front of a courthouse turned himself in hours after his brother was taken into custody and charged in the same crime, the police chief said Thursday.
Brandon Tremaine Morris, whom investigators identified as the gunman in Tuesday’s shooting, turned himself in and was in the custody of the Nash County Sheriff’s Office, Nashville Police Chief Thomas Bashore said in a news release. An arrest warrant had been filed for the 31-year-old on charges of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.
The other suspect, 36-year-old Demond Levar Morris, was taken into custody Wednesday night and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. Authorities haven’t said what his role in the shooting may have been.
Jail officials didn’t know if the brothers from Rocky Mount had lawyers. Phone calls seeking further comment from Bashore and Sheriff Dave Jenkins weren’t immediately returned.
Authorities have said the gunman ran up to the courthouse Tuesday around lunchtime, fired several times and ran away before escaping in a light-colored car. Panicked shoppers ducked into stores for cover along the normally quiet main thoroughfare for the town of 5,500 people that’s surrounded by rural areas.
Victim Donte’a Evans ran into the courthouse and collapsed after he was shot in the leg and hand. Lamar Ricks was shot in the back and fled to a nearby lot where paramedics found him.
Both were hospitalized in Greenville in critical condition as of Wednesday. Authorities have said they were expected to survive.
Another man had been identified as a suspect and brought in for questioning late Tuesday, but he was released after the police chief said he was somewhere else at the time of the shooting.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press