An 87-year-old Winston-Salem woman was sitting inside her own home Tuesday when gunfire tore into it, and as of Tuesday evening, police had made no arrests and offered no motive for why her house became a target. The woman, identified by police as Faye Binkley Stafford, was not hurt, but the shooting has left investigators piecing together where exactly the bullets came from and why.
According to WXLV, the Winston-Salem Police Department said the firearm discharge into the occupied dwelling was reported at 12:36 p.m. Tuesday at 1230 Vestal Road. Stafford told officers she was inside her residence when it was struck by gunfire, the station reported. She was not injured, and police said no other injuries or damage were reported.
Investigators determined that the shots did not originate at her address but instead came from unknown subjects who were discharging firearms in the 1100 block of Bethania-Rural Hall Road and the 1200 block of Vestal Road, according to the same report. Who fired the shots, and why, remains unclear. The station noted that the investigation remains ongoing and that police said further confirmed information will be released as appropriate.
No Arrests Yet in the Vestal Road Case
As of the time of a separate report from FOX8, no arrests had been made in connection with the shooting at Stafford's home. That leaves the case open, with investigators still working to determine who was firing in the area near Bethania-Rural Hall Road and Vestal Road when the bullets reached her house.
Other Occupied-Home Shootings in Winston-Salem
Winston-Salem has seen other cases this year in which gunfire struck homes with people inside, though the evidence does not tie any of them to the Vestal Road incident. Police reported two separate shootings into occupied homes, at 5462 Northridge Drive on March 29 and at 1176 Addison Ave. on April 1, with no injuries in either case, as reported by abc45.com. Officers later determined the two incidents involved the same suspects, and on April 30 police arrested and charged Jeremiah Isaiah Reaves, 20; Erik Holiday Belcher Jr., 20; and Dasheen Dontae Holbrook III, 17, in connection with those shootings.
In another case, officers responded around 10:28 p.m. on July 6 to reports of shots fired into an occupied home at 21-A Timlic Ave., according to WXII12. Two days later, police arrested 18-year-old Edel Mariche Mendoza in connection with that shooting and charged him with four counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. A day after that, police identified 17-year-old William Roque as an additional suspect, took him into custody, and charged him with the same four counts, per the same report.
For now, the Vestal Road shooting stands as its own open case. Police have said only that gunfire from the two nearby blocks reached Stafford's home, and that the investigation continues.
