Edgecombe high school football player shot
ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. (WTVD) -- Rocky Mount police are on the search for the gunman who injured an Edgecombe County high school athlete in a drive-by shooting over the weekend.
The siblings of 17-year-old Quontellas Norwood said the Southwest Edgecombe senior is recovering at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.
Rocky Mount police said the teen was driving down Leggett Rd. in Rocky Mount around 1:45 a.m. Sunday when someone in a passing car fired several shots into his vehicle, causing him to run off the road.
Surveillance cameras mounted to a home across the street captured Norwood coming up the stairs and knocking on the door for help.
The homeowner, who wished to only be identified as Frankie, told ABC11 he and his wife were asleep when they heard the loud knocking. They checked the surveillance feed and noticed their neighbors were tending to someone on their front stoop. When they opened the door, they saw Norwood on the landing bleeding from several gunshot wounds.
As Frankie's wife grabbed some towels and called 911, Norwood struggled to tell them who he was.
"'I don't never hurt nobody,'" Frankie recalled what the teen told him. "'I play football.' Then he was saying, 'I can't die. My mother, you know, she's going to be worried.'"
ABC11 was there Monday evening as Norwood's siblings, who live just down the street, came to Frankie's home to thank him and his wife for their quick actions that they say saved the teen's life.
As police search for a shooter and a motive, Norwood's family struggles to understand how this could happen to him, so close to home.
"He's not violent. Like, he's not even a gang banger," said Laquanna Pitts, Norwood's sister. "Like, all he want to do is play sports, show his nieces and nephews love, and to make his parents proud."
Police are still investigating and are asking for the public's help.
"Anyone in that area that saw vehicles or persons should contact the Rocky Mount Police Department and allow us the opportunity to investigate it," said Rocky Mount Police Department Corporal Michael Lewis.
Anyone with any information to call CrimeStoppers at (252) 977-1111 or the Rocky Mount Police Department at (252) 972-1411
