Three men arrested, charged in fatal Raleigh shooting

Ashton Traevon Champion, 21, and Christopher Rodney Jones, 21, both of Raleigh, each face one count of murder after authorities say they shot and killed James Elvin Alston III. Isaiah Freeman McFarland, 26, of Raleigh, was charged as an accessory.

Alston, 23, was shot at about 4:15 a.m. in the 700 block of Quarry Road, about two blocks east of Ligon Middle School.

Diana Powell, executive director of Justice Serve North Carolina, a nonprofit that helps young people in the criminal justice system, said she mentored Alston, who was turning his life around after previous trouble with the law. He had three children with his longtime girlfriend and was taking classes at Wake Technical Community College while holding down a job, she said.

"You see the good. You see the potential. You see the success in a person. You want to grab that treasure that’s inside of them and make it grow. That’s what he was doing -- one step at a time, one day at a time," Powell said. "James was changing. I saw the change in him. I saw it, and I believed in him."

Champion and McFarland were being held at the Wake County Detention Center and Jones was taken into custody without incident, police said.

The investigation is ongoing.