Man shot by mistake Wednesday

Marquis Arrington was the wrong man in the wrong place when he was shot in the back Wednesday.

Police say the 27-year-old man was on the street near Southeast Elementary School on East Bright Street when he was shot by mistake. Children playing outside the school saw the shooting but were not injured, police say.

“They were actually shooting at the suspect from a robbery,” Kinston Department of Public Safety Cmdr. Greg Thompson said. “The man who was shot just happened to be a bystander.”

Investigators on Wednesday night arrested 27-year-old Brad Vondell Clark of LaGrange, at his home. Clark is being held on a $100,000 bond in the Lenoir County Jail.

Clark apparently drove up to the spot where Arrington was standing Wednesday afternoon, got out of his car, shot the victim, and drove away. Police say multiple shots were fired.

The story seems to have started about an hour before the shooting when Jabier Murriell, 21, of 12D Carver Courts, allegedly robbed Clark of a cell phone. Police arrested Murriell. He is in Lenoir County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

Clark is believed to have been shooting at Murriell when he allegedly struck Arrington.

“Witnesses helped us ID him as one of the shooters,” Thompson said. “We’re still following leads. More arrests are pending. There was more than one shooter.”

Thompson said police recovered Clark’s cell phone when they arrested Murriell.

“We’re wondering if there’s a link between the robbery and the shooting,” Thompson said.

Arrington was taken to Lenoir Memorial Hospital and then flown by helicopter to Pitt Memorial Hospital. Doctors at Pitt performed surgery on Arrington Wednesday afternoon and again this morning. Thompson described Arrington’s condition as stable Thursday afternoon.

w Thompson said investigators don’t believe there is a connection between Clark’s shooting and the shooting of Marquis Williams a week earlier.

Williams is improving at Pitt Memorial Hospital. Police talked with him briefly today but Thompson said the man is heavily sedated. Investigators will interview him again in a couple of days.

Anthony Holloway, Leslie Conner Jr., and Tony Pernell Rouse are charged with shooting Williams. The men are being held in Lenoir County Jail on a $75,000 bond each.