Neal charged in Triangle Town Center shooting, prosecutors seek no bond
Prosecutors said Marcus Stephon Neal III fired seven shots at Triangle Town Center and should stay jailed as new details shifted blame toward a planned assault, not a random mall fight.
Wake County prosecutors told a judge that Marcus Stephon Neal III fired seven shots during the April 17 shooting at Triangle Town Center, and they asked that the 18-year-old Raleigh man remain jailed without bond as the case moves forward.
At Tuesday’s hearing, prosecutors said Neal was not part of the initial fight near the Express store. Instead, they said three teens arrived at the northeast Raleigh mall in hoodies and black masks to assault Trayshawn Hedgpeth, who worked at a kiosk there. During the struggle, prosecutors said, Hedgpeth pulled a handgun from the kiosk and Neal fired seven times in an effort to get the teens off him.
That account sharpened the central question in the case: whether the gunfire was a spontaneous burst in a public place or the next step in a fight that had already turned violent inside one of Wake County’s busiest shopping centers. Raleigh police had earlier said three 17-year-olds confronted and assaulted a 20-year-old employee near the Express store, and that the employee then pulled out a gun. Police also recovered two handguns at the scene.
Neal is charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed gun and discharging a weapon within city limits. His defense attorney argued that Neal was trying to protect a friend who worked at the mall and pointed to his lack of criminal history, his graduation from Southeast Raleigh High School, his job at Amazon and the support of family members who filled the courtroom. The judge ordered Neal to stay in jail pending trial and set his next hearing for June 2.
The shooting happened around 3:30 p.m. Friday, April 17, and injured three people who were hospitalized with wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening. Triangle Town Center reopened at 1 p.m. the next day, Saturday, April 18, after security patrols were increased by 50 percent.
The mall sits at 5959 Triangle Town Blvd. and advertises 165 shops and five anchors, including the state’s only Saks Fifth Avenue. That mix of restaurants, stores and anchor tenants is part of what makes Triangle Town Center a daily gathering place for families across northeast Raleigh, and the courtroom details now point to a safety challenge that extends beyond one afternoon’s gunfire.
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