Cary police have arrested a man accused of shooting a 5-year-old on Monday in what officers called a “road rage incident.”
Police said the suspect, 20-year-old Charles Edward Stevenson Jr., was located in Raleigh and taken into custody just before 8 p.m. Tuesday.
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Stevenson is facing several charges, including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and discharging a firearm into occupied property. He is due in court Wednesday.
The arrest comes a little more than 24 hours after shots were fired into a vehicle during rush hour on U.S. 1 in Cary. A 5-year-old girl, Ema, was in that vehicle, and was shot through the leg. WRAL News is withholding the girl’s last name at the request of her family.
“Your stomach just drops all the way down,” said Aubree Allison, the girl’s aunt. “To hear the wailing from her mother last night, when we went to greet her at the hospital, no mother or parent wants to get that phone call.”
According to Ema’s family, the bullet passed through the girl’s leg before lodging in her sippy cup.
“What an image that is. And it’s nothing that you hope happens in your own life,” Allison said.
According to the girl's mother, her husband spotted the shooter’s car, and another car, weaving back and forth. She said the suspect then threw something out the window, which damaged the other car, before hitting her husband’s vehicle.
Later, on U.S. 1, her husband caught up to the suspect’s car. She said he rolled down his window to yell at the suspect, and that's when the suspect pulled out a gun and fired a single shot.
According to Allison, Ema had to undergo multiple surgeries, but is now “in good spirits.” However, the bullet took a chunk of her leg, and Ema is now facing extended physical therapy, all before she ever sets foot in a kindergarten classroom.
Allison added she hopes this shooting will encourage people to do something about gun violence in the community. She also started a GoFundMe for Ema’s family to help them pay for the girl's medical bills.