ROCKINGHAM — A suspect is facing eight new charges in a weekend shooting and his alleged accomplice has turned himself in, sheriff’s deputies said Thursday.
Kevin Robert Williams, 21, of McArthur Drive, Rockingham, turned up at the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office just before midnight, according to Chief Deputy Mark Gulledge.
Williams and 41-year-old Daniel Maurice Wall are accused of spraying Jess Drive in the Little Philadelphia community with gunfire from a high-powered rifle on Saturday, severely wounding 23-year-old Brandon Montez Ratliff.
Both men are charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. Ratliff was rushed to FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital and transferred to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
Deputies on Thursday filed eight new charges against Wall: Four counts of causing injury to real property, three counts of discharging a weapon into occupied property and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
Arrest warrants state Wall fired 7.62mm rifle rounds into a Jess Drive home occupied by three adults and five children, shot into a couple’s home on A Street and fired two shots into the siding of one mobile home and one shot into another.
Wall is also accused of firing three shots through a wooden privacy fence, shooting a hole through a dresser mirror, shooting two rounds into the windshield and one into the roof of a 2004 Ford Expedition, shooting a hole through the roof of a 2012 Ford Focus and shooting out the right-rear tail light of a 1998 Chevrolet Malibu.
“We’re just lucky that no children or others were struck,” Gulledge said earlier this week. “Thank goodness we didn’t have any additional victims than what we had. I know there were children and families out and about at that time.”
Both suspects in the case have a criminal past. Wall was released from prison on Feb. 18, 2015 after serving a 17-year, 9-month prison sentence for second-degree murder. Williams is on probation for September 2015 drug, assault and gun possession convictions and was convicted on two counts of felony breaking and entering in October 2013.
Wall was initially jailed on a $750,000 secured bond. He received an additional $250,000 on the new charges for a total bond of $1 million.
Williams was booked into the Richmond County Jail on similar charges and also received a $1 million bond.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
Deputies said the investigation into last weekend’s shooting remains open and more arrests and additional charges are possible.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division at 910-410-1117 and ask for Detective Wall or Detective Watson.
Anonymous tips can be provided by calling Richmond County Crime Stoppers at 910-997-5454.
Reach Editor Corey Friedman at 910-817-2670 and follow him on Twitter @corey_friedman.
