Rocky Mount Crips Gang Member Pleads Guilty to Firearm Charge following Gang-Related Shooting

RALEIGH, N.C. – A Rocky Mount man pleaded guilty yesterday to possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.

Darius Lamark Richardson, 22, a validated member of the Crips street gang, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and faces a maximum penalty of 120 months in prison.

According to the investigation, officers with the Rocky Mount Police Department responded to a shots fired call at a residence on Hendricks Street in Rocky Mount around 7:30 p.m. on July 12, 2019. Witnesses advised officers that four male subjects exited a white Nissan Maxima sedan and began firing at the house, which was the residence of a known Blood gang member. Rocky Mount Police Department patrol units located the suspect vehicle several blocks away from where the shooting occurred. The vehicle was registered to a validated Crip gang member. When officers initiated their emergency equipment, the Nissan sedan immediately began to accelerate. Officers pursued the vehicle, which was traveling at high speeds in a residential area. Eventually, the driver jumped from the vehicle and fled on foot, leaving the vehicle in gear and rolling down the street until it crashed into a house. Officers chased the driver on foot and eventually detained him on North Howell Street. The driver was later identified as Darius Richardson, a convicted felon and validated Crip gang member. Along the flight path, officers recovered a black Smith & Wesson handgun, which had been reported stolen out of Rocky Mount four days earlier. Investigators later determined the shooting was related to an ongoing gang feud.

Robert J. Higdon, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert T. Numbers, II, accepted the plea. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Rocky Mount Police Department is investigating the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Aakash Singh is prosecuting the case.

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