Nash County courthouse shooting victims improving
NASHVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- One of the victims injured in a shooting outside the courthouse in Nashville last Tuesday has been released from the hospital.
The Nash County Sheriff's Office says Donte'a Evans has been released from the Vidant Medical Center, while a second victim, Lamar Ricks, remains in the hospital in stable condition.
The pair was shot on Oct. 28 just after 11 a.m. while on the front porch of the courthouse.
Two brothers, Demond Levar Morris, 36, and Brandon Tremaine Morris, 31, of Rocky Mount are charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill in connection with the shooting.
Early in the investigation, authorities first arrested a third man, but later let him go after a woman said she was with him the entire day of the incident and he was not involved.
Nash County Sheriff Dick Jenkins was unapologetic days later, saying that's how investigations progress sometimes.
"If we have information that says you did it, we're going to look at you and question you," said Jenkins. "When we find out there's nothing to it, we turn you loose."
The shootings stunned the normally quiet Nashville, about 50 miles east of Raleigh.
"We heard gunshots, like: Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!" said Judy Winstead, who works at a real estate office across from the court. "It was very loud, and when we came out we even smelled gunpowder."
Winstead said she ran to the front door and locked it as an uninjured woman screamed on the courthouse steps.
Within minutes, Winstead said "there were deputies all over the place and cop cars zooming in" at the courthouse that handles both civil and criminal cases.
Renee Davis said she heard five loud, echoing shots inside her flower shop across the street. A half-dozen people ducked inside her store for cover, she said.
"You knew it was gunshots because it was consecutive," said Davis, co-owner of Madelyn's Flower Shop.
Last week, Nashville Police Chief Thomas Bashore said things in the town were returning to normal.
"Nashville is a safe place for both the citizens and the visitors we have that come here," he said.
