An 18-year-old is being held without bond and a 13-year-old boy has been placed in secure juvenile custody after deputies say the pair robbed a Durham County vape shop at gunpoint earlier this month, leaving investigators still searching for the driver who sped them away from the scene.
The robbery happened on Sept. 6 at VIP Tobacco & Vape, located at 3708 N.C. 98/Wake Forest Highway near Mineral Springs Road, according to CBS 17. Deputies say the suspects grabbed items from the store before fleeing in a waiting vehicle. Court paperwork reviewed by the station indicates that at least one box of Infuzd blueberry lemonade vapes, valued at $600, was taken during the theft, per the arrest warrant.
The confrontation didn't end quietly inside the store. According to a Durham County Sheriff's Office press release, employees tried to stop the suspects as they fled, and one of them brandished a handgun before both escaped in the waiting car. Detectives later reviewed the store's surveillance video as part of the investigation, per the same account.
How Investigators Identified the Suspects
Durham County Sheriff's Office School Resource Officers helped identify both suspects, the station's report notes. The sheriff's office fields 27 to 28 deputies across that division assigned to Durham public schools, according to a Durham County Government budget report, work that put deputies in position to recognize the two young suspects from footage.
Kai Morrison, 18, of Durham, was arrested after the robbery and charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony conspiracy, per officials. He's being held without bond in the Durham County jail. The 13-year-old boy was taken into secure custody on a judge's order and was charged with the same offenses — robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony conspiracy — but is being processed through juvenile petitions rather than as an adult.
Why the Charges Diverge for the Two Suspects
That split reflects North Carolina's legal framework for juvenile offenders. Robbery with a dangerous weapon under North Carolina General Statute § 14-87 is a Class D felony carrying a statutory maximum of up to 204 months — 17 years — in prison for adult offenders, according to a Powers Law Firm legal guidance summary. That's the exposure Morrison faces as an adult defendant.
The 13-year-old, however, remains under juvenile court jurisdiction under the state's “Raise the Age” framework unless a judge approves a petition to transfer the case to adult superior court following a probable cause hearing, per a Fay Grafton Nunez statutory commentary. No such transfer has been reported in this case.
Getaway Driver Still at Large
Durham County authorities are still seeking the vehicle's driver, with additional charges pending as investigators pursue the unidentified accomplice, according to WPTF. The case was reported by CBS 17 journalist Rodney Overton.
The Durham robbery lands amid a broader pattern of thefts targeting tobacco and vape retailers across the state and nation, which former federal law enforcement officials described in 2026 reporting as a rising trend of “criminal vaping” and targeted storefront thefts, according to Carolina Journal. That's despite statewide numbers moving the other direction — North Carolina Department of Public Safety data shows reported robbery offenses statewide fell 17.7% during the first six months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier, the outlet reports.
Vape shops keep drawing armed robbers regardless of the statewide dip. In August, police in High Point charged two 13-year-olds with armed robbery after they allegedly robbed another minor at gunpoint for THC vape products, a case that mirrors the age and charges seen in the Durham incident. And in a 2025 case out of nearby Knightdale, a 20-year-old received a 10-year federal prison sentence for Hobbs Act robbery after brandishing a gun at a vape store, Hoodline previously reported.
VIP Tobacco & Vape keeps late-night hours until midnight daily at its Wake Forest Highway location, according to a SmokeShops.com business directory listing, hours that put it and similar shops in the path of after-dark robbery attempts described across recent Triangle-area cases.
