Authorities arrested Ziyaire Antonyo Spinks in connection with a Saturday shooting at Winston-Salem State University that killed Peyton Izaia Patterson and injured Alyssa Janae Ellerbee. Police said the fatal shooting happened during homecoming game day, and another shooting on campus followed later that night.
The arrest came after officers tied Spinks, 20, to the shooting that killed Patterson, 19, at 9:46 p.m. He was charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and felony possession of a firearm on an educational campus.
Winston-Salem State University shooting
Police said officers heard shots fired and found Patterson with a gunshot wound. Emergency medical services and officers tried lifesaving measures, but he did not survive. Alyssa Janae Ellerbee, 19, was treated at a hospital and later released after being shot in the same incident.
Jason Swaim said the shooting stemmed from an altercation between two groups. He also said Spinks was not a student of Winston-Salem State University, and neither was Cequon Warren Brower, 18, who was arrested in connection with fighting.
Two shootings on campus
Police said the homicide was an isolated incident and not connected to a separate shooting reported at 10:22 p.m. Officers found two people with gunshot wounds in that second case, and a vehicle linked to it was later stopped by West Side police officers.
By Sunday afternoon, no arrests had been made in the second shooting case. Amir Henry said, “Tragically, this year, this celebration has been overshadowed by the loss of life and the injuries resulting from two separate shootings on our campus.”
Spinks court records
Spinks is being held without bond. Court records show he has two previous court cases pending in North Carolina, including a Randolph County case involving carrying a concealed weapon and marijuana possession from a March arrest and a Guilford County indictment in October for felony conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery with a dangerous weapon.
The campus secured after the shootings, but the immediate unanswered issue is what led the two groups into the altercation that triggered the fatal shot. Until that is addressed, the arrest answers who was charged, not why the confrontation began.
