'It feels unsafe': 15-year-old shot near Moore Square Middle School in downtown Raleigh
A teenager was shot Monday afternoon in downtown Raleigh.
According to the Raleigh Police Department, a 15-year-old was shot and taken to the hospital and the suspect is detained.
Sky 5 was at the scene, which appeared to be near Moore Square Middle School on the 300 block of South Person Street.
"We are aware of the situation," said a spokesperson with Wake Schools. "It did not occur on campus."
The crime scene stretched as far as the corner of Martin Street and Bloodworth Street.
A spokesperson said the school went into code red lockdown around 2:52 p.m. and went into code green around 2:59 p.m.
The 15-year-old is currently in critical condition.
Police arrested 22-year-old Steven Mark Stanley and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and possession of a firearm by a felon in connection to the shooting.
'It's been going downhill'
The area near the school has seen an uptick in violent crime.
Demetrius Bennett, who lives across the street from Moore Square Middle School, said crime has been too common near the school and Moore Square in general.
"It's been going downhill, significantly in the last five years," Bennett said. "This is the first shooting, but I think there was a stabbing one time."
Earlier in October, a man was stabbed near the Moore Square bus station and in June, a woman's car had it's window shot out while she and her two children were in the car.
People living in the area said it's unsettling having this type of violence happen so close to home.
"Having a child myself, it feels very unsafe," Melissa Motola said. "To think about how we have to be careful at 2:30 p.m. It's one thing about 10 o'clock at night, but at 2:30 in the afternoon? In broad daylight?
The shooting comes less than a week after Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson released crime statistics in Raleigh for the third quarter of 2023. Of those stats, aggravated assaults with a firearm were up from 99 this time in 2022 to 139 in the third quarter of 2023.
WRAL's DataTrackers investigated the number of police incidents reported within Moore Square and the eight blocks surrounding it over the last five years.
They discovered year to date, from January 1 to October 23, crime incidents are up 51% from the same time period last year, and up 74% from the same time period in 2019, before COVID.
On Tuesday, Raleigh City Council Members are expected to meet at the Department of Public Safety meeting and hear from people around the city on their concerns over safety in the area.
Moore Square Magnet Middle School said counselors will be at the school on Tuesday for students and staff who need additional support and additional law enforcement and security will be at the campus.
