An 8-year-old child was shot while riding in a car with his mother in Southern Pines on Saturday. The shooting occurred on South Mechanic Street at 5 p.m.
The Southern Pines Police Department responded to the 700 block of W. Michigan Avenue in reference to a gunshot victim. The shooting was reported to have occurred moments earlier in the 800 block of S. Mechanic Street.
Upon arrival, members of the Southern Pines Police Department’s Patrol Division located an eight-year-old gunshot victim, said Southern Pines Police Department in a news release. The victim, who was a passenger in the vehicle driven by his mother, sustained a non-life-threatening injury and was transported to the hospital for treatment.
Early information in this investigation has revealed that this was not a random act of violence.
Warrants for the arrest of Arrington Fairley, 30, of Southern Pines, have been obtained charging him with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and discharging a firearm within the city limits of Southern Pines, according to the news release.
Fairley has previous firearms-related charges and should be considered armed and dangerous. He was released from prison on Feb. 11, 2021, after serving time for manslaughter, according to information from North Carolina Public Safety.
Arrington Fairley
The Southern Pines Police Department is seeking assistance from the community in locating Fairley. Information can be provided by calling the Southern Pines Police Department at (910) 692-7031, or the Investigation Division of the Southern Pines Police Department at (910) 693-1481, or the Crime Tip Line at (910) 693-4110. All information provided will remain confidential and can be provided anonymously.
This is the fourth shooting Sandhills Sentinel has reported on in just over a month.
D.P. Black, 91, was found shot to death on his porch in Aberdeen, and Mary Lou Black, 86, was found shot to death inside the home on July 9 after deputies made a welfare check on the married couple.
Tony Patterson, 42, of Aberdeen, and Tim Cooper, 45, of Carthage, were arrested and each charged with two counts of murder.
On July 11, a gunshot victim was airlifted to a hospital from Veterans Memorial Field in Carthage. The victim had driven himself to the Short Stop in Carthage and called for help. The man refused to give any information about who shot him or where he was at the time of the shooting.
A person was shot on July 19 and airlifted to an area trauma center. Authorities were dispatched to the 4200 block on Big Oak Church Road in Eagle Springs for a gunshot wound. A landing zone was set up at Eagle Springs Fire Department where UNC Tar Heel 2 landed a short time later. Authorities said the person was in stable condition the next morning.
~Photo by Sandhills Sentinel Publisher B.J. Goodridge.
