Police in Goldsboro, North Carolina, are asking the public to help find a second suspect in a double shooting that killed a Smithfield man and left a Smithfield woman fighting for her life, describing the wanted man as armed and dangerous. Deashawn Maleek Darden, 22, is wanted on warrants charging him with murder and attempted murder after the shooting on Monday, November 9, 2026, in the 1100 block of North Jefferson Avenue, according to the Goldsboro Police Department.

Source: Goldsboro News-Argus via State Wonderer

Officers responded at about 7:33 p.m. on November 9 to a report of a person shot. At the scene they found Cory James Hodges, 41, of Smithfield, suffering from gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, Goldsboro police public information officer LaToya Henry said. A second victim, Tachelle Denise Stewart, 37, also of Smithfield, arrived at a hospital in a private vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds. She was transferred to ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville, where she remained in critical condition in the latest police updates reported by the Goldsboro News-Argus.

First suspect arrested the next day

On Tuesday, November 10, investigators identified Kanye Khammonni Glasper, 22, as a suspect. At about 11:12 a.m. that day, officers from the Criminal Investigations Division, the Special Enforcement Unit, Patrol Shift B and the VICE Unit located Glasper in the 1900 block of Wayne Memorial Drive. Police surrounded a Mazda3 sedan and took him into custody without incident, according to police reporting carried by the News-Argus.

Glasper was served with warrants charging him with an open count of murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, going armed to the terror of the people, and discharging a firearm within city limits. He was remanded into custody without bond, and his first court appearance was scheduled for November 12. The murder charge relates to Hodges' death; the attempted-murder and assault charges relate to the attack that left Stewart critically injured. Glasper is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.

Second suspect still at large

Investigators say Darden faces the same slate of charges: murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, going armed to the terror of the people, and discharging a firearm within city limits. Police said Darden should be considered armed and dangerous, and anyone who sees him is urged not to approach him and to call 911. The charges against Darden are allegations; he too is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The department's Investigations Division and Crime Scene Unit processed the Jefferson Avenue scene and are leading the case. Police have not disclosed a motive, and they have not said what led to the gunfire or how the victims and the suspects knew each other, if they did. Those circumstances remain part of the active investigation.

What happens next

The manhunt for Darden is the immediate focus: as of the police department's latest update reported on November 15, he had not been arrested. Glasper's case now moves through Wayne County court, where prosecutors must prove the charges at trial. Stewart's condition — critical at ECU Health Medical Center in Greenville in the latest reports — will also shape the attempted-murder case, and police say further updates will follow as the investigation continues.

For residents of the North Jefferson Avenue neighbourhood, the shooting on a Monday evening, on a residential block, is the kind of local violence this desk reports in full because it is where readers live: a man dead at the scene, a woman transferred to a regional trauma centre, one young man in jail without bond, and another still being sought by police who say he is armed. Anyone with information about the shooting itself, not only about Darden's whereabouts, is asked to contact Goldsboro police.