A man shot following a dispute at a Ferrell Street residence in Clinton this past weekend continues to recover from his injuries at Cape Fear Valley Health in Fayetteville, even as police investigate reports of possible self-defense that led to the near-fatal shooting.
No arrests have been made in the shooting of Jonathan “Jon-Jon” Raynor, 29, which is still under investigation, Clinton Police Chief Jay Tilley said Thursday. Clinton police are waiting to talk with Raynor, who was shot — reportedly multiple times, the most serious of which was to his abdomen — while visiting 630 Ferrell St. late Friday night and into the early-morning hours Saturday.
“We’re waiting for Jon-Jon to get out of the hospital so we can interview him,” Tilley said Thursday. “He was in critical condition but it appears he’s going to recover.”
Police responded to the Ferrell Street home, just a few blocks from the station, at 12:23 a.m. Saturday, Tilley said. There was a gathering there to celebrate the life of an individual who recently passed away. At a certain point, an altercation occurred between Raynor and Joshua Lamb, 34, who lives at the Ferrell Street address.
“Witnesses reported that an altercation occurred, during which shots were fired and Jon-Jon sustained gunshot wounds to the stomach,” Tilley remarked. “He was transported to the hospital and uniformed officers recovered two handguns.”
Those handguns were reportedly in Raynor’s possession even though Lamb pulled the trigger, the police chief said, relaying witness statements.
“Josh is the suspect but now we are conducting an investigation into a claim of self-defense,” he noted. “We’ve identified the shooter and we’re investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.”
Raynor’s mother Agnes Chevallier told The Independent that the police not only withheld information about the shooting, but have not made an arrest despite evidence she said points to Lamb.
“They didn’t try to do nothing,” she said Thursday, just before she was about to go back to Fayetteville to check on her son. “He’s laying there wide open. The bullet ruptured his main intestine and his leg is swollen. He was trying to get away from Josh. He can’t believe (police) haven’t arrested him.”
She said it was a misunderstanding that led to the altercation, with her son making an aside statement about “fake people” and Lamb taking exception to it. She said Lamb told him to leave and that’s what her son was doing when he was shot. He sustained multiple wounds in the abdomen, leg and pelvic area as he tried to get into the passenger side of a vehicle being driven by an acquaintance, she said.
“You asked the man to leave and he was leaving,” Chevallier said. “I don’t know what got into Josh. He didn’t have to shoot Jon-Jon.”
Chevallier conceded she has had a fair share of run-ins with the law before, having been recently released following nearly two decades in prison, with charges of arson, kidnapping, involuntary manslaughter and habitual felon among those on her record.
“I just got out of prison,” said Chevallier. “I’ve done 18 years total.”
She said her son Tony — she has six sons and one daughter — is also expected to be released from prison later this year after a 10-year federal sentence. Despite her family’s checkered past, her son Jon-Jon “never owned a gun” and didn’t deserve what he got, she attested.
“When I heard about it, I was crying,” said Chevallier of her son’s shooting. “The doctor said ‘I’m not going to sugarcoat it, if he makes it, it will be a miracle. My faith is in God.”
And her son looks as if he will make it.
During a recent visit, Raynor was able to say a few words to his mother, expressing his disappointment not just for the lack of an arrest in his shooting but for missing the funeral of Benjamin Cunningham, who was shot at the corner of Morisey Boulevard and Stetson Street on Sept. 16, less than three days before and about as many blocks away from the Ferrell Street shooting.
Chevallier said the violence is too much.
“No one’s going to retaliate,” she attested. “I’ve seen a time I would go there, but I just put it in the Lord’s hands.”