An underage suspect has been arrested in connection with the March shooting death of 16-year-old Cameron Sanders, the Washington County High School student whose killing on Roosevelt Avenue in Plymouth shut down every school in the county for a day. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest on August 24, more than five months after Sanders was shot twice and later pronounced dead at Washington Regional Medical Center.
Washington County deputies were called to 1172 Roosevelt Avenue on March 12 for a report of shots fired, according to WITN. They found Sanders had been shot and rushed him to Washington Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Officials are not releasing the suspect's name, and the same report notes that authorities plan to release more information as the investigation continues.
That secrecy is not a choice so much as a legal requirement. Under North Carolina General Statute § 7B-2102, law enforcement and juvenile court officials must keep juvenile records, mugshots, and identifying details confidential, which is why the arrested minor's name has not been made public, per the UNC School of Government. That confidentiality holds unless the case is transferred to adult court.
A Rare Legal Path to Adult Court
Whether that happens depends on a separate statute. North Carolina General Statute § 7B-2200 mandates that if a juvenile court judge finds probable cause that a minor aged 13 or older committed a Class A felony, such as first-degree murder, the case must move from juvenile court to adult Superior Court, according to the UNC School of Government's criminal law program. Once that transfer occurs, the Juvenile Code no longer applies, and the case proceeds under adult criminal procedure. Lawmakers have been actively adjusting those thresholds in recent years; in June 2024, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation modifying the state's 2019 “Raise the Age” law to expand the conditions under which 16- and 17-year-old felony offenders can be shifted into adult court, per WCNC.
A Chaotic Morning Before the Overnight Shooting
Sanders' death came at the tail end of an already tense week for the small district. Hoodline's earlier coverage of the morning after the shooting described how a fight at Washington County High prompted a soft lockdown at the high school and the nearby elementary school, before officials closed every school in the county for the day. Sanders, a student at Washington County High School, was killed overnight before that closure took effect.
The shooting also landed just two days after a separate, unrelated act of gun violence in Plymouth. On March 10, Washington County Sheriff's deputies responded to a shooting on Wilkins Farm Road that left two people injured, leading to attempted murder charges against a suspect identified as Keontae Sanders, according to the Albemarle Observer. It is not clear from available reporting whether that suspect is related to Cameron Sanders.
Community Grief and a Wider Pattern of Violence
In the days after the shooting, community members raised more than $15,000 online to help cover funeral costs for Sanders' family. A public viewing followed on March 27, and his funeral was held the next day in the gymnasium at Washington County High School.
Sanders' death was not an isolated tragedy for Plymouth in 2026. Three weeks later, on April 2, 36-year-old Plymouth resident Devonelle Brimage was fatally shot on Latham Avenue while shielding his infant son, a case that led to first-degree murder charges against two adult suspects this August, as Hoodline reported in a story on the Brimage case. State agents made arrests in both homicide investigations within the same late-August stretch.
The town's small size makes the toll especially stark. Plymouth is the county seat and largest municipality in Washington County, with a population of just 3,320 people spread across roughly four square miles, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2024 alone, the town recorded four homicides, producing a murder rate of 126.2 per 100,000 residents and a violent crime rate more than four times the national average, per data compiled by OpenCrime.
Because Plymouth's police department and the Washington County Sheriff's Office are small, they routinely lean on the State Bureau of Investigation's Northeastern District unit for forensic and investigative support on homicide cases, a reliance the Albemarle Observer's reporting attributes to the limited resources of rural municipal departments. Investigators have described the case as active and ongoing, and officials say they will share additional information as it becomes available.
