A 16-year-old East Wake High School student was pulled out of class and arrested just before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in connection with a shooting that hospitalized a man at a Burlington shopping center four days earlier. The teen, identified in warrants as Oswald Miles III, was taken into custody in Wake County and now faces serious charges tied to the Oct. 24 shooting at Alamance Crossing.
Court records cited by CBS 17 show Miles was assigned no bond and has a first court appearance scheduled for Thursday at the Alamance County Courthouse. The outlet reported that warrants charged Miles with second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, felony rioting, and possession of a handgun by a minor, with his arrest tied to a shooting at the Alamance Crossing shopping center that investigators say happened during an alleged riot.
A separate account from abc45.com lists a different set of charges for the same 16-year-old, reporting that he was booked on attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, inciting a riot, and possession of a handgun by a minor.
What Happened at Alamance Crossing
Officers responded to the 900 block of Boston Drive at Alamance Crossing at about 7:28 p.m. on Oct. 24 after reports of a shooting, according to the same abc45.com report. An adult male was shot and taken to a local hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Police said the incident grew out of an altercation between the alleged offender and the victim, and investigators believe the shooting was an isolated event.
East Wake High School Goes Into a Hold
East Wake Magnet High School sent a message to families Wednesday informing them of a student's arrest by law enforcement, per CBS 17's report. The school was placed under a hold status while officers carried out the arrest in the classroom, and administrators said they appreciated their relationship with law enforcement and Wake County Public School System security in responding to the situation and ensuring student safety. The article naming Miles was written by CBS 17 reporter Nick Bentley.
A Broader Look at Juvenile Crime Trends
The arrest comes as Wake County's own juvenile crime numbers have been trending downward. The county received 3,556 delinquent complaints involving youth ages 6 to 17 last year, a decrease of about 4.2% from 2024, according to ABC11 Raleigh-Durham. Those roughly 3,500 complaints represented 729 individual youths, the station reported, and the county's Juvenile Crime Prevention Council said it served just over 1,000 youths last year while funding 12 programs across Wake County.
Statewide, a report highlighted by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety found that increases in firearm homicides peaked in 2021 before declining 29% through June 2025. The same reporting noted that young people ages 20 to 24 have the highest rates of interpersonal firearm violence across the state's counties, though those broader figures were not tied directly to the Alamance Crossing case.
