LAURINBURG — In 2021, the Laurinburg Police Department saw a decrease in both calls for service and shots-fired calls.

According to Capt. Chris Young with the LPD, between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of 2021, there were more than 19,000 calls for service — a 6% decrease from the more than 21,000 calls the LPD responded to in 2020.

Of those calls, 560 were for shots fired and in total 81 incident reports were filed from located either property damage or an injured person. This is a significant drop as 2020 saw 724 shots fired calls with 115 incident reports.

Of the combined 196 incident reports from both years, Young added only six of those are under investigation.

In the county, the Scotland County Sheriff’s Office had a little more than half the shots fired calls than the city. According to Capt. Randy Dover the SCSO responded to 288 shots fired calls. Of those calls there were six vehicles shots, six homes shot and three people shot.

The homicides …

In total across the county, there were nine incidents that lead to the deaths of 12 people with several of them unsolved.

The SCSO saw the first homicide of the year on Feb. 11, 2021, with the death of Monerrior Dejuan Taylor of Atlanta, Georgia, on Blakely Road. In April two men, Shavonte Jarrel McBryde and Kenneth Quick, were charged for the murder.

The second incident for the SCSO occurred in the Deercroft are in Wagram on July 25, which was murder-suicide claiming the lives of Mark and Bonnie Schenck.

While the SCSO 2021 homicides all were solved, there were only three from the three of seven from the LPD that were solved.

On June 27, Kennis Quanmell Robinson, 29, of Maxton was found in the roadway of Geneva Street, deceased from gunshot wounds. Later, 35-year-old Cedrick Darrell Staggers and 24-year-old Teon Trevareus Thomas were arrested for the murder.

Less than two weeks later, the city’s first double-homicide occurred on July 9 at the U.S. 74 off-ramp at U.S. 401. At the scene, 23-year-old Andrew M. Montgomery and another passenger were found in a vehicle with gunshot wounds. Montgomery was pronounced dead on the scene while the other passenger was airlifted to another facility where they later died. The name of the second victim was not released at the time of the original investigation.

The same day as the murder, 31-year-old Triandes Quashaun Frazier was arrested in connection to the case.

On Nov. 27, LPD had its last homicide of the year at Ahlams Convenience Store on South Caledonia Road where store employee 32-year-old Nabil Ali Mohammed Alrably was found deceased. Later, a 16-year-old was arrested in connection to the case.

The unsolved cases of Kyseen Danicia Armstrong, Tony O’Neal Blackmon, John Fitzgerald McCoy and the double murder of Linda Hatcher Taylor and Jennifer Gayle Locklear are featured in the Saturday Spotlight.

Reach Katelin Gandee at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.