A Plymouth father who died shielding his 8-month-old son from a hail of gunfire has a measure of justice five months later, after state investigators arrested two men on first-degree murder charges this week. Devonelle Leon Brimage, 36, was killed on April 2 while sitting in a vehicle parked in his driveway at 110 Latham Avenue, and his infant son was in the vehicle with him when the shooting began.
Officers with the Plymouth Police Department were patrolling nearby and personally heard multiple gunshots at approximately 1:34 a.m., according to the Roanoke Beacon. When police arrived, they found the vehicle parked in the driveway, with Brimage and two others inside. As reported by WCTI, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation said Brimage died at the scene.
According to family statements reported by PEOPLE and WITN, Brimage used his own body to shield his infant son from the gunfire. The baby, who police confirmed was holding onto Brimage inside the vehicle during the attack, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was later discharged from the hospital, per the same reporting.
A Second Victim's Long Road to Greenville
A second man in the vehicle, 38-year-old Avione Linquad Webb, was sitting in the rear seat when he was shot. Webb was initially taken to Washington Regional Medical Center before being transferred to ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville for specialized care, and he was later released after treatment, per the same account.
That nearly 48-mile trip underscores a stark reality of emergency care in rural Washington County: the nearest major trauma center equipped to treat severe gunshot wounds sits roughly an hour away in Greenville, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. Rural eastern North Carolina counties generally rely on these regional hubs for emergency surgery, the department notes.
SBI Makes Arrests After Months-Long Investigation
Plymouth Police requested assistance from the SBI shortly after the shooting, and the Washington County Sheriff's Office also assisted agents with the arrests carried out this week, per WCTI. Special Agents assigned to the SBI's Northeastern District unit arrested 18-year-old Darris Lee Barnes and Gvonta Shakur Riddick, both of whom are charged with first-degree murder in connection with the April shooting that killed Brimage and injured Webb.
Barnes and Riddick are being held without bond and are scheduled to make their first appearances in Washington County District Court on Tuesday, according to the SBI. The case remains an active investigation, and it is not yet known whether prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty or pursue a joint trial.
What Conviction Would Mean Under State Law
Under North Carolina General Statutes § 14-17, first-degree murder is a Class A felony punishable exclusively by death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, a sentencing structure the state legislature established in 1994. Because Barnes was 18 at the time of the offense and arrest, he is subject to full adult sentencing guidelines, since North Carolina's juvenile sentencing protections apply only to offenders under 18, according to the Patrick Roberts Law Blog. If capital punishment is not sought, a first-degree murder conviction for either defendant would carry a mandatory life sentence without parole.
The shooting adds to a difficult year for Washington County, where Plymouth serves as the county seat and most populous municipality, with a population of 3,320 recorded in the 2020 U.S. Census, per the U.S. Census Bureau. It comes less than a month after Hoodline reported on a fatal shooting that shut down Plymouth schools in March, a separate incident that had already rattled the small Roanoke River town. A 2023 crime profile from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety found Washington County recorded 36 total violent crimes that year, with aggravated assault accounting for 83.3% of those offenses, even as the county had reported a 16% overall decrease in violent crime the year before.
The motive behind the April 2 ambush has not been disclosed, and it remains unclear whether Barnes and Riddick knew Brimage, Webb, or the infant before the shooting. Investigators have not released further details as the case moves toward its first court appearances this week.
