ALL COUNTIES: Over the last few weeks, NC WANTED has observed a disturbing trend in the Triangle: the number of teenagers falling victim to violent crime and the number of teenage perpetrators.
Most recently, a 14-year-old Durham boy was arrested for stabbing a 15-year-old boy on a school bus heading home from school Friday.
Earlier last week, 16-year-old Lensy Arnette Gill, of Durham, was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury after he allegedly struck a 10-year-old boy in the head during a drive-by shooting. The victim survived.
Sebastian Smith, 18, also of Durham, was arrested last week after allegedly committing three armed robberies in two days. In one of the robberies, Smith and a 15-year-old boy robbed an 81-year-old woman at gunpoint as she got out of her car on South Plum Street.
In what appeared to be a teen domestic dispute, Cory Jiggetts, 19, allegedly shot the mother of his child to death last month. Skye Monique Lee, 18, was found dead inside her apartment with their 10-month-old son unharmed nearby.
Current North Carolina law determines that any perpetrator over the age of 16 be treated as an adult and teens as young as 14 can be treated as adults depending on the circumstances of the crime. Bills pending in the state legislature could change those statutes, raising the age for optional trial as an adult to 16.
Because juvenile crime is at an eight-year high in North Carolina, the state is building four new juvenile detention centers to meet the needs of a growing number of juvenile offenders.
NC WANTED is looking in to the phenomenon of juveniles in prison for an episode to air this summer, featuring exclusive interview with Kenneth Meeks, the convicted killer of Wilson teen Brittany Willis. Stay tuned.
If you have any information on crimes in North Carolina, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.
