WADESBORO — A Rockingham man is dead from “numerous gunshot wounds” and police in Anson County are still looking for the suspect.
Officers with the Wadesboro Police Department responded to a call at the Oak Hill Apartment Complex on Wednesday, March 6 to find a shooting victim, 30-year-old Jamarcus D. Sellers, according to a press release issued March 8.
Sellers was reportedly taken to Atrium Health Anson where he later died from his injuries.
Investigators with WPD, joined by agents with the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, were able to identify the shooting suspect as 26-year-old Dewon Rayquan Hailey of Wadesboro soon after the shooting.
Warrants have been obtained for Haliey’s arrest, charging him with first-degree murder. Investigators also believe Hailey was acting alone, according to the release.
Law enforcement personnel “have been relentlessly searching for Hailey,” and investigators believe he may be in the Union County area, the release states.
“I would like to send my personal and our department’s most sincere condolences to the friends and family of Mr. Sellers,” Chief Brandon Chewning said in the release. “It saddens me to see such a young vibrant life taken in a senseless act of violence.
“I would like to assure the community that the Wadesboro Police Department will not condone criminal behavior and we continue working tirelessly to make Wadesboro a safer and better place.”
The chief also thanked the officers of his department, along with the Anson County Sheriff’s Office, SBI, Union County Sheriff’s Office, Monroe Police Department and N.C. Department of Adult Correction Division of Community Supervision “for their assistance during this investigation and fugitive manhunt.”
Anyone with information on Hailey’s whereabouts is encouraged to call the WPD tip line at 704-694-2160.
Hailey appears to have no current pending charges.
Records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction show Hailey has several criminal convictions over the past decade.
Hailey was first convicted in 2014 of felony breaking and entering in Anson County. His probation was revoked three months later and he served several months behind bars.
The following year, Hailey was convicted of attempted discharging a firearm into an occupied property, possession of a firearm by a felon and felony larceny in Anson County, and larceny of a motor vehicle in Union County. For those crimes, he was incarcerated for three years and eight months.
Hailey was also convicted in 2022 of maintaining any place for a controlled substance in Anson County, and possession of a firearm by a felon the following year in Montgomery County. He received probation in both cases.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
