HAMLET — Police are still investigating a weekend shooting that sent a teenager to a hospital.

Detective Lt. Randy Dover of the Hamlet Police Department said a 17-year-old male victim was shot on Pine Street, near King Street, late Friday night into Saturday morning. The call came in around 12:38 a.m., he said.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was shot three times in the lower body, and transported to an undisclosed hospital for treatment of his injuries, according to Dover. As of Monday, the victim was still hospitalized.

Dover said investigators were told the victim had left a large party on Seaboard Street prior to being shot, but said police are having trouble getting people to cooperate with the investigation.

There are no suspects at the time, but Dover said the shooting appears to be gang related.

Anyone with information in the case is encouraged to call the Hamlet Police Department at 910-582-2551 or Richmond County Crime Stoppers at 910-997-5454.

Hamlet police have investigated several shootings within the city limits since May.

In the first of two incidents at the Hamlet Food Mart, 21-year-old Diquon Cox was shot twice — once in the leg and once in the arm — around 9 p.m. on May 9, according to police. He was treated at a Charlotte hospital and released later that week.

Police identified the suspect in that shooting as 21-year-old Brian Devonte Dowdy, also known as “Billy Juice.”

He was arrested in Laurinburg after police there say he fired a gun inside a hotel room.

Hamlet police say 28-year-old Glen Joseph McCray, who was arrested after turning himself in to the sheriff’s office, shot another man outside the Hamlet Food Mart just after midnight June 2.

Police investigated another a shooting at a Spring Street home a few days after that shooting — the home of the victim in the June 2 shooting.

The victim in that case, who also has not been named, was shot three times.

Another teen was arrested in May following a shootout on Washington Avenue, where no one was hit.

A 17-year-old, who was not named because of his age, was charged in a June 20 shooting.

In October, there were four shootings in one weekend.

Dover said the first incident happened around 1:20 a.m. Oct. 15, when a man was shot seven or eight times. He said investigators believe the shooting happened on Monroe Avenue behind the Food Mart.

Several hours later, Dover said multiple shots were fired into a home, with several people inside, in the Buttercup Drive area.

Dover said there were also two vehicles shot at the Circle B convenience store the following Sunday. The first was shot around 1 a.m. and there were no injuries reported. The second happened around 11:21 a.m. and Dover said a woman was hit by a bullet fragment, but did not go to the hospital for treatment.

Both Dover and Hamlet Police Chief Scott Waters have said they believe most of these shootings to be gang related.

On Nov. 29, police arrested John Paul Outen, 41, on a charge of possession of a firearm by a felon after responding to a fender bender at Food Lion.

His criminal record includes multiple convictions of breaking and entering and felony larceny in Mecklenburg County, as well as larceny and possession of stolen goods convictions in Union County, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.

His most recent state conviction was in 2000 on a misdemeanor charge of communicating threats in Union County.

Records with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons show he was released from federal prison in July of 2015 — on his 40th birthday — however the charge(s) is not publicly available online. A typical term for supervised release on a federal conviction is three years.

Reach William R. Toler at 910-817-2675 and follow him on Twitter @William_r_toler.

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By William R. Toler

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