14-year-old victim identified in Wilmington shooting death

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington Police have released new information in the second deadly Sunday shooting in less than a month.

The shooting was reported around 6:30 p.m. at the intersection of Emory Street and Stewart Circle. Police said Aljhean Thomas Williams, 14, was killed.

Today we spoke with Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo about the continuing violence here in the Port City. He said that helping fight violent incidents has been a priority of the city for years, including the decision last year to put additional money into the budget to hire more police officers.

Saffo said it is important to work with the community because such a large number of these crimes involve minors.

“Here again it comes right back to youth violence,” Saffo said. “We have a 14-year-old kid that was killed last night. A couple of weeks ago we had a drive-by shooting, where two of the perpetrators that committed the crime were under the age of 18, and the ones that were all shot were under the age of 18. So it concerns us greatly that we have this amount of youth violence.”

So how can the city work to stop the violence?

“We have created a gang task force as of last year, we’ve put additional moneys into the budget for the coming year to hire additional police officers. At the same time we’re looking at different things that we can do within the community to keep kids in school and get them graduated and get them onto some sort of a career,” Saffo said.

Saffo adds that the vast majority of our youth are doing the right thing and it is a few people out there who are continuously breaking the law.

New Hanover County Schools spokeswoman Valita Quattlebaum said that there were counselors at both  Hoggard High School and  Mosley PLC where the victims of the most recent homicides went to school.

Anyone with information on the incident is urged to contact WPD.