Eight months after gunfire erupted on Brownrigg Street in Goldsboro, police have made an arrest. Stuart Alexander Hines, 39, is being held without bond after being taken into custody on August 23, charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury in connection with the shooting of 41-year-old T. Lee Rodriquez Williams.
The shooting happened just after midnight on December 18, 2025, when Goldsboro police officers responded to reports of gunfire in the 300 block of Brownrigg Street, according to WCTI. Officers arrived to find Williams suffering from a gunshot wound, and he was initially taken to Wayne UNC Health Care before being transferred to ECU Health Medical Center, according to the Goldsboro Daily News. That earlier report noted officers were dispatched at 12:31 a.m. and that the case was quickly handed off to the department's Investigative Services Bureau and Crime Scene Unit.
Court documents allege Hines assaulted Williams with a silver handgun and intended to kill him, per the station's report. Police had not announced an arrest at the time of that initial coverage, leaving the case open for eight months before Hines was arrested.
Suspect Held Without Bond, Court Date Set
Hines is scheduled to appear in court Thursday, August 27, according to the same account. He is currently being held without bond, though officials have not disclosed a motive for the shooting, the nature of any prior relationship between Hines and Williams, or an explanation for the eight-month gap between the crime and the arrest — all questions that remain unanswered as the case heads to its first hearing.
The charge Hines faces is Assault with a Deadly Weapon with Intent to Kill Inflicting Serious Injury, according to the station's report. The cited sources do not establish the sentencing options for this charge.
A City Grappling With Gun Violence
The Brownrigg Street case lands amid a stretch of gun violence that has kept Goldsboro police busy. Just this month, officers investigated an August 11 incident on West Holly Street involving a person found dead in a vehicle after a reported crash, with the cause of death and identity undisclosed, according to Hoodline previously reported.
The broader numbers help explain why. A North Carolina Department of Public Safety violence profile found that violent crime in Wayne County rose 6% between 2022 and 2023, with aggravated assaults making up 81.8% of all violent crimes recorded in the county that year. NeighborhoodScout analytics from October 2025 placed Goldsboro's overall crime rate at 67 per 1,000 residents, higher than 98% of North Carolina communities, per NeighborhoodScout.
The statewide picture provides a broader comparison. Emergency department visits for firearm-related injuries among Wayne County residents did fall 33% from 2023 to 2024, totaling 47 patient visits in 2024, per the same state tracking.
Police Leadership Pushes for Tougher Gun Laws
The persistent local violence has prompted changes at the top of the Goldsboro Police Department. In January, the department restructured its command staff, promoting Major Stine to oversee critical operational divisions and naming Captain Jason Adams as Deputy Chief under Chief Michael D. West, according to the Goldsboro Daily News.
House Bill 1173, known as Jaleeyah's Law, was introduced following the violent death of a local teenager, according to the Goldsboro Police Department.
As the case against Hines moves forward, questions about motive and the delay in his arrest remain unresolved. Hoodline previously noted that Goldsboro in Wayne County is sometimes confused with the unrelated Historic Goldsboro neighborhood in Sanford, North Carolina, which has seen its own separate gun violence cases.
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