Durham Police Investigate Shooting

Officers were first called to a house in the 800 block of Leon St. near Duke Street around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday to investigate a report of shots fired into an occupied dwelling. No one in the house was injured, but as officers were taking the report they learned that a DATA bus had been struck by a bullet as it was traveling in the 800 block of Leon St. around the same time.

Three passengers on the bus suffered minor injuries caused by flying glass and were treated at the scene. Police do not believe the bus was the intended target of the shooting.

Officers were then called to an apartment complex in the 1200 block of Leon St. at 8:24 p.m. to investigate another report of shooting into an occupied residence. At least nine shots were fired into an apartment, but no one was injured. The suspect was described as male wearing a red bandana around his mouth.

As Durham Police Cpl. T.G. Sembly was examining the damage, several more shots were fired in his direction. Sembly took cover and was not injured.

Two minutes later Sembly saw a teen with a red bandana around his neck walk from a nearby apartment building. The teen -- Malcom Jamal Burwell, 16, of 1126 Hoover Road -- was visiting a relative in the apartment complex. Officers searched the relative's apartment and found a .22-caliber rifle hidden under a mattress. They also found spent shell casings.

Burwell was charged with shooting into an occupied dwelling and assault on a law enforcement officer. His bond was set at $75,000.

He has not been charged with shooting into the DATA bus or the house in the 800 block of Leon St., but detectives are investigating whether those cases are related to the incidents in the 1200 block of Leon St.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Durham Police Department's Criminal Investigations Division at (919) 560-4440 or CrimeStoppers at (919) 683-1200.

CrimeStoppers pays cash rewards for information leading to arrests in felony cases and callers never have to identify themselves.