Police release surveillance tied to deadly teen house party
FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- Fayetteville police have released dozens of surveillance images and a video tied to a deadly weekend house party.
At least seven young men are seen milling around a local gas station in the wee hours of Sunday morning. On Tuesday, police said they believe the group had just left a house party along Grandview Drive that ended with the murder of 19-year-old Ravon Jordan.
At least 70 young people, ages 16-21, were in attendance along the 1500 block when more than 70 shots were fired. During a Monday press conference, Fayetteville police Chief Harold Medlock said the shots came from at least five high-powered weapons.
"That's all I heard-blasts. Just gun blasts," said Quintina Tuggle, whose front yard became a refuge for party-goers scattering for safety. She was awakened by one of her daughter's screams.
"I heard so many gunshots," said Tuggle. "First thing I told my daughter when she came running through the house screaming...I said, 'You get down.'"
Tuggle and other neighbors said the kids outside their windows ran in every direction following the loud gunshots, hopping in cars and jumping over fences. A large bullet hole can be seen in a sedan parked several houses from where the shooting took place. Neighbors say shell casings lined the entire block in the shootings aftermath.
Tuggle said one of the young ladies who came in her yard was standing next to Jordan when he was shot in the head. The two were in the driveway of the home where the house party took place.
"She said, 'You know, he was standing right beside me, and I said, 'Count your blessings.' I said, 'that it didn't get you.' I said, 'Yes, it's dreadful that it got him, but it would have been even more tragic if it got you too and your were standing that close.'"
Police say the Grandview Drive conflict spilled over from another house party held on Bunce Road earlier in the night. They did not indicate where the surveillance images had been taken. On Monday, Medlock vowed to find the handful of
young men they believe pulled triggers.
"We're going to run them [suspects] right into the ground and get them off the streets so we don't have any more children in our city with their lives taken needlessly."
Jordan's family declined to comment on his murder.
Police ask anyone with information regarding the surveillance images or the shooting death of Ravon Jordan to contact Detective M. Ballard with the Fayetteville Police Department at (910) 549-7326 or Crimestoppers at (910) 483-TIPS (8477).
