HAMLET — Police have charged one man in two of four shootings that happened over the weekend within the city limits.
Detective Lt. Randy Dover said the first incident happened around 1:20 a.m. Saturday, when a man was shot seven or eight times. He said investigators believe the shooting happened on Monroe Avenue behind the Food Mart.
The name of the victim — who was flown to an undisclosed hospital for treatment and is expected to make a full recovery — has not been released.
Several hours later, around 9 a.m., Dover said multiple shots were fired into a home, with several people inside, in the Buttercup Drive area.
Around noon Tuesday, police charged 28-year-old Adrian Lamar Campbell with attempted first-degree murder and discharging a weapon into an occupied property. He was given a $125,000 secured bond on those charges.
Jail records show Campbell was booked Monday afternoon, and was under a $75,000 bond, on a misdemeanor charge of assault by pointing a gun and felony charges of conspiracy, first-degree burglary and larceny of a motor vehicle. Those charges were levied by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
Also facing the same charges in that case are 25-year-old Michael Dequan Johnson, of Deering Street in Hamlet, and 19-year-old Tierrell Tremaine Martin, of Earl Franklin Drive in Dobbins Heights.
Investigators with the sheriff’s office say the men went to a residence on Sandhill Road and forced the victim to give them the car keys. The car was later located in Hamlet.
Martin was also charged with probation violation and booked under an $85,000 secured bond. Johnson was given a $125,000 secured bond.
Dover said there were also two vehicles shot at the Circle B convenience store 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.
Investigators have identified a person of interest and, as of early Tuesday afternoon, were still trying to locate him.
Dover said most of the shootings are gang related.
There were four shootings in Hamlet between May 1 and June 20.
The Daily Journal is aware of several other shootings in the Dobbins Heights area, outside of the Hamlet Police Department’s jurisdiction, but phone calls to investigators with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office the past two days had not been returned as of press time Tuesday.
According to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction, Campbell has a history of violence.
His first convictions were in Richmond County in November of 2006 on felony charges of assault with attempt to inflict serious injury and common law robbery, two misdemeanor counts of assault on an officer or state employee and a single count of simple assault or affray.
Records show he was incarcerated for 14 months on those charges.
While locked up, he was convicted in 2007 on misdemeanor charges from Scotland County: assault on a female, domestic criminal trespassing, assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of carrying a concealed weapon.
In 2009, Campbell was convicted on felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and discharging a firearm into an occupied property in Richmond County.
According to state records, his sentence began Sept. 8, 2009 and he was released May 2, 2015. However, he was incarcerated three months later on a post-release revocation and released in March of this year.
Martin is listed as a probation absconder and was convicted in late 2015 on four felony counts of breaking and entering vehicles, two misdemeanor counts of larceny and a single count of injury to property.
He was previously convicted of felony breaking and entering.
Johnson was convicted on five counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and a single count of discharging a firearm into an occupied property in late 2011 and was released in July of 2013.
In February, he was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of assault on a female and given probation.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
Reach William R. Toler at 910-817-2675 and follow him on Twitter @William_r_Toler.
