Victim bewildered by Fayetteville wreck, shooting

Darrick Kelly, 32, and his two daughters, ages 7 and 4, were in a car on Bragg Boulevard near William Clark Road at about 9:30 p.m. when a Cadillac rear-ended their Saturn, police said.

"He was coming at me. He was flying, coming after me. He hit me," a shaken Kelly said.

After the collision, he said, he saw the driver bolt from the Cadillac and run off. He said he began to look after his daughters and called out for help.

"When I was getting my girls out, he came back and said, 'You need help? You need help?' That's when he shot me in the jaw," Kelly said.

Kelly also was shot in the hand and side with what police say was a .22-caliber revolver. His 7-year-old daughter, Dakia, was hit four times in her back and foot.

"I guess (she was shot) when we were running. I don't know. It just happened so quick," he said.

His 4-year-old daughter, Keniyah Sanders, was unharmed.

Kelly and his daughters ran into a nearby Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits restaurant for help. Officers apprehended the gunman as he tried to flee the area on foot.

A flurry of calls to 911 reflect the chaos that ensued at nearby eateries along the busy thoroughfare.

"Just had a guy just dump a whole load of bullets on this guy on Bragg Boulevard in front of Krispy Kreme," one caller told a 911 dispatcher.

"I had to get out of Dodge. Everybody just jumped up and ran," the man told the dispatcher.

Another caller gave a description of the gunman to the dispatcher and then began yelling across a parking lot to a passing police officer, "There's the shooter."

Police identified the gunman as Eric Samuel Jones Jr., 21, of 2515 Cattail Circle. He has been charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and was being held in the Cumberland County jail under a $100,000 bond.

Jones could also face federal weapons charges, police said.

Gavin McRoberts, a spokesman for the Fayetteville Police Department, said Jones was convicted in 2007 of two counts each of felony breaking and entering and larceny and served about four months in jail.

Investigators still haven't determined a motive for the incident, although they are looking into the possibility that road rage prompted the shooting.

"It seems right now a random occurrence," McRoberts said. "We don't know exactly why, or what caused the accident, and why he hopped out of the vehicle and opened fire on the victims."

Kelly said he had never met the man and doesn't know why he became violent.

Kelly was released from Cape Fear Valley Medical Center on Wednesday and said he expects Dakia to be released on Thursday.