The 15-year-old daughter of Fayetteville City Councilwoman Courtney Banks-McLaughlin was shot and killed Friday night on Maitland Drive, Mayor Mitch Colvin and two council members confirmed Saturday.
Coryonna Young was a 10th grader at Seventy-First High School.
"We are all heartbroken to hear about the tragic loss of our colleague's daughter," Colvin said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Councilwoman Banks-McLaughlin and her family."
Officers responded to a reported shooting just before 7 p.m. along the 2000 block of Maitland Drive, the Police Department said in a release.
In a Saturday update, police said the shooting occurred inside a residence along that block.
“The individuals involved were juveniles and known to one another,” police said in the release.
Officers and Emergency Medical Service personnel arrived and found a person with a gunshot wound. The person was pronounced dead at the scene, the release said.
The Police Department’s Homicide Unit is investigating. Members of the Police Department did not respond to phone calls or emails seeking additional comments about the shooting.
The neighborhood is not far from Cliffdale Road in west Fayetteville.
Neighborhood resident Daman Gilmore said that earlier Friday a group of young people – including Coryonna – were happy and practicing their marching drills for what looked to be Air Force Junior ROTC.
“I was like, man, what escalated that fast?” Gilmore said he remarked later when he learned of the shooting.
Gilmore, 47, has lived on Maitland Drive for about eight years and said the area is normally quiet with kids playing and people walking in the neighborhood.
“We figured that someone heard something,” he said.
A man who came to the door of the house that two neighbors pointed out as the location of the shooting said he didn't know anything about what happened.
Another neighborhood resident, who is 39 and has lived in the area for two years, also called the neighborhood “very quiet.”
Maitland Drive has rows of two-story houses on each side and is largely home to active-duty and veteran military service people, residents said. Gilmore said Maitland is part of the expanded Heathcote of West Point subdivision.
Banks-McLaughlin represents District 8 on the City Council. She is in her second term. She was first elected in November 2019.
According to her biography on the city website, Banks-McLaughlin is married to Melvin McLaughlin, an 82nd Airborne Division disabled veteran. She has five children and one grandchild.
Councilwoman Kathy Jensen said Banks-McLaughlin was very close to her daughter.
"I have gotten to know Councilwoman Banks-McLaughlin the last few years, and she is a colleague and I consider her a friend, and my heart is breaking for her,’’ Jensen said.”I know that she and her daughter were very close. … and I look at her like her little Mini-Me."
This was the third fatal shooting in Fayetteville this week. Two people died in separate shootings Tuesday night, police said.
Damian R. Lee, 26, died in a shooting around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday on Slater Avenue, police said.
Shaquille Deonte Bratcher, 29, died in a shooting just after 11 p.m. Tuesday on South Raeford Road. Another person was injured, police said.
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Michael Futch covers Fayetteville and education for CityView. He can be reached at mfutch@cityviewnc.com.
