15-year-old found shot and killed in NC, cops say. Two men arrested 700 miles away

When deputies arrived at a mobile home park in the early morning on April 12, the sheriff said they found a 15-year-old dead from a gunshot wound.

Six days later and 700 miles away, police in Rhode Island arrested two men accused of pulling the trigger.

Tommy Jackson, 23, of Sanford, and Jesse Richardson, 26, of Fayetteville, were arrested Sunday and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of a stolen motor vehicle, Harnett County Sheriff Wayne Coats said. The men reportedly had a handgun and were in a stolen vehicle at the time of their arrests.

Jackson and Richardson were taken into custody with help from the Middletown Police Department, Newport Police Department and Rhode Island State Police, the sheriff said. They will be extradited back to North Carolina.

Deputies were called to an address in Spring Lake, North Carolina, just after 2:30 a.m. on April 12, according to the sheriff’s office. Spring Lake is about 25 minutes north of Fayetteville and home to roughly 12,000 people, according to U.S. Census records.

“Harnett County deputies arrived on the scene and located a deceased 15-year-old male gunshot victim inside the residence,” the sheriff’s office said. “The victim’s name is not being released due to his age. This is very early in this investigation, but the investigation to this point lead investigators to believe that this shooting is confined to this residence.”

The teenager had been shot in the head, WNCN reported, and two other young people were in the house when police arrived.

It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday how law enforcement connected Jackson and Richardson to the shooting or why they were in Rhode Island.

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