ROCKINGHAM — A reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of a man wanted in connection to a shooting last year.
The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in locating 26-year-old Hakeem Radriek Owens — wanted in the shooting of Ethan Grant.
Grant was shot multiple times inside his Cartledge Creek Road home the afternoon of Sunday, July 12, 2015, and was later airlifted to an undisclosed hospital for trauma care.
The number of gunshot wounds he sustained has yet to be released, but deputies say Grant was home alone with the shooters at the time of the incident.
A month later, Grant was still hospitalized and deputies had no leads.
Deputies arrested 24-year-old Bryant Sanquan Hamilton and 21-year-old Treviyon Dyvonte Freeman in November, nearly four months after the shooting..
According to Chief Deputy Mark Gulledge, investigators with the sheriffs Office, vice and narcotics investigators and the Richmond County Special Response Team — assisted by the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation — arrested the two men at the same time, but at different locations.
Hamilton, of Cherokee Street, and Freeman, of Lassiter Road, were charged with one count each of attempted first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony breaking and entering. Hamilton was also arrested on outstanding warrants, charged with assault by pointing a gun and failure to pay child support.
Both are still in jail, but online court records show no scheduled appearances.
Investigators say Owens is 5-feet, 11-inches tall and ways about 230 pounds. His last known address is 260 Lassiter Road in Rockingham.
Deputies believe he has contacts in the Fayetteville area and say he was last seen driving a white Cheverolet Suburban.
An amount for the reward has not yet been set.
Records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction show Owens served six-and-a-half months behind bars in late 2012, early 2013 after his probation was revoked on a 2011 conviction on a felony charge of delivering or selling a Schedule II controlled substance and misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer.
In 2006, Owens was convicted on a misdemeanor charge of possessing a Schedule VI controlled substance in Scotland County.
Anyone knowing Owens’ whereabouts is encourage to contact the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office at 910-895-3232 or Richmond County Crime Stoppers at 910-997-5454.
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.