[Unsolved mysteries of the Durham police department.]
The Alpine Road Townhouse Quadruple Slayings.
News & Observer, November 22, 2005 -- excerpt --
Chalmers said his detectives had several strong leads, but he would not give specifics.
District Attorney Mike Nifong said he could seek the death penalty against those responsible.
"It sounds to me like it would be a death penalty case, just based on the fact that you have four people that are killed execution-style," Nifong said.
Durham had the highest murder rate per capita of any large North Carolina city in 2004, according to FBI crime data. The quadruple killing makes a total of 33 homicides within the city limits in 2005, exceeding last year's total of 30 with six weeks left. Three other killings have occurred in unincorporated areas of Durham County.
City leaders stressed that many of those killings involved drugs and street gangs, and that law-abiding residents should feel safe.
"We're not giving up or giving the streets of Durham to the criminals," Chalmers said. "We do have innocent victims, but again, this particular crime certainly involved people who were involved in a certain type of activity that would bring this type of activity to their doorsteps. ... They didn't go next door. They didn't go to the next building."
Pistol tied to Durham slayings, News & Observer, July 21, 2006, Samiha Khanna; Staff Writer
DURHAM -- After numerous police promises of an arrest but little new information, the head of Durham's homicide unit said Thursday that forensic tests prove a handgun found at the scene of the killings of four men in November was one of the murder weapons.
Though Durham's police chief repeatedly has said arrests in the case were imminent, no one has been charged in the Nov. 19 shootings at 2222 Alpine Road that killed Lennis Harris Jr., Jonathan Skinner, Jamel Holloway and LaJuan Coleman, and injured Nacoree Upchurch and Allen "Alex" Shuler. All of the victims were in their 20s.
But Durham police Sgt. Jack Cates confirmed Thursday that tests showed the 9 mm pistol found at the crime scene was "one of the murder weapons."
According to a search warrant served at the two-story townhouse the day after the killings, police found a loaded 9 mm Ruger handgun that was to be tested by local and state forensic specialists to see whether it was linked to the deaths. Police also found several unfired .45-caliber bullets, and shell casings from fired .45-caliber rounds, but no corresponding pistol, the search warrant showed.
Cates would not say when forensics experts determined the 9 mm pistol matched bullets and fragments found in and around the victims or to whom the gun belongs. Despite pressure from the public and the victims' families, police have released little information on the case. But the detective has said in recent weeks that police have at least two suspects. Police say witnesses saw at least three suspects running from the scene.
The effort to build leads continued Thursday, as a team of investigators from Durham's homicide unit and community outreach workers with Project Safe Neighborhoods knocked on doors at the Oakley Square Apartments at 1835 Cheek Road.
The complex has been the scene of drug raids and homicides, and was at one time a field office for Durham's police gang unit. Some of the four men killed and two who were wounded frequently visited acquaintances there, Cates said.
Formerly known as Cheek Road Apartments, the complex has also been the home of Haywood Lynn Scott, 57, for the past 15 years, according to court records.
Less than two weeks after the killings, police received an anonymous tip that Scott had key information in the case, according to a search warrant served Dec. 1 at 1835 Cheek Road, Apt. 14-A, where Scott lived with his mother. Though they didn't call Scott a suspect, they searched his apartment, seizing a handgun and a 12-gauge shotgun along with boxes and ammunition for at least four other firearms, the warrant showed. They also took eight pairs of shoes and a half-dozen cell phones.
Police collected trace evidence from the floorboards and seats of Scott's blue 1989 Toyota Camry, the warrant showed. They soon learned Scott's fingerprints were found on the bedroom door of the Alpine Road townhouse, near the bodies of the victims, the warrant showed. Neither police nor the warrant called Scott a suspect.
Investigators returned to 1835 Cheek Road again Thursday to hand out fliers asking for information and remind residents of the $13,000 in reward money that has been posted by local and state authorities, Cates said. He said he likely won't know the success of the outreach until later.
"A lot of people won't feel comfortable talking right away but may decide to call later on," Cates said.
The detective said the investigation has never reached a standstill and reiterated that investigators were committed to charging the right people in the high-profile case.
"We want a conviction. We don't want to act prematurely," Cates said.
QUADRUPLE KILLINGS
At 9:44 p.m. Nov. 19, Durham police were called to a two-story townhouse at 2222 Alpine Road, a small subdivision off Hope Valley Road in southern Durham.
Upon arriving, police found Allen "Alex" Shuler, 22, on the townhouse's front step, with a gunshot wound to the face. Inside, officers rushed up the stairs to find four men lying across the carpet of a small bedroom, each shot in the head. A sixth man, 27-year-old Nacoree Upchurch, was discovered, having jumped through a second-story window to a patio below to escape death.
Killed were: Lennis Harris Jr., 24, LaJuan Coleman, 27, and Jamel Holloway, 27, all of Durham, and Jonathan Skinner, 26, of Raleigh. Harris and Skinner were cousins.
Police said the victims, all of whom had attended or graduated from college, were targeted in a drug-related robbery. Though traces of cocaine and marijuana were found throughout the Alpine Road home, families of several of the victims deny their sons were involved in the drug trade. However, Upchurch was on probation for maintaining a place for the sale of drugs and had previously served time for cocaine trafficking.
** The Alpine Quad Slayings remains first choice for local observers for AV connected probes. A simple glance at a map should get the thought processes going. Now we wonder, could this be the DA's October election surprise?
[The defense, again citing the July 18 date, argues that Bannon's review of an investigative file at the police station reflects the accuser was involved -- as a suspect, witness or otherwise -- in at least five other probes.]
Now whree is that dang flag on ctv..... LOL
just kidding, long time poster here, and only a reader on ctv...LOL
I got banned for suggesting that black Durhamites share a hand in bringing about this disgraceful miscarriage of justice because Cash Michael was blaming the whole thing on Nifong and saying that black Durhamites are owed an explanation because they voted for him.
Excuse me???!! They're equally guilty!