LAURINBURG –A Laurinburg man was in court Thursday morning on charges that he shot his brother to death and injured two other people.
Terrence Terrell Green was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his brother, Deangelo Patterson. Green is also accused of shooting two other people Wednesday evening at a home at 304 Tuskeegee Drive.
Green was informed of the charges during an arraignment in Scotland County District Court Thursday.
“How am I charged with first-degree murder?” Green asked the court. “That is premeditated.”
District Court Judge Christopher Rhue told Green that the charge could be changed at a later point.
“Nobody knows what it is going to end up being,” said the judge, who ordered Green held without bond.
Green has also been charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, discharging a firearm in city limits and discharging a weapon into an occupied dwelling, possession of a firearm by a felon, and breaking and entering.
The 29-year-old has an extensive criminal record dating back to 2004 with convictions ranging from breaking and entering, assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, to possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine.
He has a court date of April 11 on an assault by pointing a gun charge unrelated to this case.
Shots fired
Police received a call of shots fired near the intersection of Creedle Street and Tuskeegee Drive shortly after 7 p.m., on Wednesday, according to Police Chief Darwin Williams.
Police arrived to find 26-year-old Patterson already deceased.
Darrell McCrimmon, 54, of the residence, was found at the corner of McGirts Bridge Road and Speller Street with multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Gill McRay also of the residence also received gunshot wounds, according to police.
Williams said Green was taken into custody shortly after 4 a.m. with the help of tips from residents.
“I want to thank the community for their help and support,” Williams said.
Both victims were transported to Scotland Memorial Hospital. McRay was treated and released. McCrimmon was in critical condition and transported to a hospital in Florence, according to neighbor Theresa Thomas.
Thomas said Green and Patterson had been fighting earlier in the evening and Patterson had tried to avoid the conflict.
“[Green] was making his brother fight him. The younger guy didn’t want to fight. He said, ‘You my brother; leave me alone, leave me alone.” Thomas said.
McCrimmon intervened in the altercation and got Patterson in the house shortly before the shooting erupted, according to Thomas.
“In less than 10 minutes [Green] kicked the door down and rampaged everybody,” Thomas said.
Police do not know the reason for the fight. They said they could not comment on Thomas’s version of events.
“We are still trying to figure out a motive behind it; the investigation is still ongoing at this time,” Williams said.
Practice for several teams in a spring football league at I Ellis Johnson was interrupted when emergency personnel closed the field as a landing area for a life-flight helicopter.
“We heard the rescue squad and police sirens and about 10 minutes later a fire truck came in, got on the intercom and told us we had to evacuate,” said Carolyn Locklear, a parent at the practice.
Locklear said the experience was frightening for the children especially children whose parents were not there.
“It’s sad that you’ve got all these innocent children out there practicing football and the next street over there’s a killing going on,” she said. “If it had been closer, a stray bullet could have hit one of the children.”
In response to Wednesday’s shooting and other recent violence across the county, Kathy McCallum of Laurinburg plans a prayer vigil at the courthouse at 6 p.m. tonight
“So much has been going on in Scotland County in the last few months,” McCallum said. “We just need to come together and pray for our county.”
There have been eight shootings in the city in March alone.
“Most of those are due to domestics,” Chief Williams said. “We can’t really do anything about those until they happen because we can’t see inside people’s homes to stop it unless they call us.”
