3 men shot near Glenwood South district in downtown Raleigh

Three men were shot in Raleigh early Sunday morning, according to Raleigh police.

At 1:47 a.m., police responded to a report of shots fired near the intersection of Glenwood Avenue and West North Street, a Raleigh Police Department spokesman said in an email.

Two adults were taken to a nearby hospital with what police called “non-life threatening injuries.” A minor was taken to the hospital in a private car with “a serious gunshot wound.”

Police have not announced any arrests or suspects in Sunday’s shooting.

Safety concerns in Glenwood South

This is not the only shooting to occur on West North Street in recent months. In April, a former N.C. State University football player was charged with two felonies connected to gunfire at his West North Street apartment.

Police charged Hakim Omar Jones with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and two counts of discharging a weapon into occupied property in an incident that happened at the Gramercy Apartments. Nobody was injured in the April 16 incident.

Last month, North Carolina first lady Kristin Cooper questioned the “vibrancy” of the Glenwood South district after a man tried to kick-in the door of her and Gov. Roy Cooper’s private home.

Cooper’s comments about the nightlife district were raised during a Raleigh City Council meeting last month by resident Woody Biggs, who’s been asking leaders to address crime and noise in Glenwood South for months.

“We have had noise issues for years. The crime issues seem to have escalated greatly in the last two years,” Biggs said in an interview with The News & Observer in May.

“Before the last 12 months I never heard about gunfire in Glenwood South,” he continued. “Now every month I am hearing about gunfire going off in Glenwood South. And if you don’t speak up nothing changes.”

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City response

Glenwood South is typically defined as the Glenwood Avenue area bordered by Peace Street on its northern edge and Hillsborough Street on the southern edge.

City leaders have been paying attention to rising crime there for nearly two years.

“(With) the issues that we’re seeing, at some point I believe, truly, that you’re going to have a national incident,” Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson told the City Council in April 2022. “And I don’t want that by any (means). And I don’t think anybody else wants that,”

Patterson gave the council recommendations to help curb crime in the area, The N&O previously reported. Those included pushing clubs to use metal detectors to keep firearms out, making Glenwood South a one-way street on weekend evenings and notifying people nearby when there is an incident.

Business owners and residents of Glenwood South have recently tried to call attention to what the district means for the city economically. The Glenwood South Neighborhood Collaborative issued a report that found the area generates $1.2 billion in annual spending.

That report, which was prepared by Montana-based Circle Analytics, also found the area supports 18,500 jobs and produces $110 million in indirect taxes, The N&O previously reported.

The community group plans to use the report in ongoing efforts to get more support from city officials, including expanded sidewalks and a railroad quiet zone. The City Council is expected to hear more about the findings at its June 26 work session.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.