Victim of fatal shooting on Fourth Street identified
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A gunman who shot and killed a 25-year-old city man in the 1100 block of West Fourth Street late Friday night remained at large, city police said on Sunday. The victim, Quahdeir Durrant suffered multiple gunshot wounds about 11;45 p.m. and was rushed by ambulance to UPMC Williamsport, where he was pronounced dead in the emergency room at 2:54 a.m. Saturday, according to Lycoming County Coroner Charles E. Kiessling Jr.
Neighbors who heard the shots said it was a "chaotic" scene.
"I was in my living room (watching television) when I heard guns. Pop, pop, pop, real loud and then screams and crying. It was horrible," said one neighbor. "There was a crowd out there and a woman screaming 'he is shot in the head,' and 'you can't die right now,'" the neighbor added. "A whole bunch of people were yelling and screaming," she said.
Another neighbor said the gunfire woke him up out of a sound sleep.
"It was bam, bam. There was a second of silence and then three or four more shots right in a row," the neighbor said. "It was weird. I heard a whole bunch of people yelling and screaming," he added.
When police arrived on the scene, "they saw a large crowd in front of a building and the victim lying on the ground and suffering from gunshot wounds," according to a press release.
As the ambulance sped off to the hospital with Durrant, several people jumped in vehicles and took off as well.
City police and Pennsylvania College of Technology police quickly cordoned off the shooting scene with yellow tape. State police also responded. Much of the ballistics evidence surrounded a parked white four-door Volkswagen SE V6 that had a temporary Virginia license plate that expired two weeks ago.
In the press release, investigators expressed their frustration with those at the shooting scene for not coming forward with information.
"Despite the lack of cooperation from the large number of persons who were present at the scene, officers will continue every effort to successfully solve this (homicide)," the release said.
Calling the shooting "another senseless act of violence," Mayor Derek Slaughter, in a video statement, said that the homicide "appeared to be an isolated incident with no additional threat to the public."
Slaughter also said "We will not rest until those responsible are brought to justice and held accountable for their actions. To successfully solve these cases, we need each and every person in our community to step up. If you know something or see something, you need to say something immediately. Reach out. It's on all of us. Families should not have to bury their loved ones as a result of unnecessary violence. Problems can be and should be resolved without a gun."
In the spring, Durrant was involved in a downtown shooting, police said.
About 1:40 a.m. on April 3, a man identified by police as Daimeer Abdul Clark fired "10 rounds" at Durrant in an alley near West Fourth and Court streets, The gunfire that was caught on a surveillance video, according to court records filed by police. The same video also recorded Durrant "raising his arm in a manner consistent with someone pointing and firing a gun," an officer wrote in an affidavit.
Durrant and Clark were not injured, but a round allegedly fired by Clark struck a man in his buttocks as he was loading DJ equipment into a vehicle. The injured man was treated at a hospital and released. Another bullet that Clark allegedly fired struck a drain pipe attached to a building behind Durrant, police said.
No charges were filed against Durrant, but Clark, 22, a resident of Loyalsock Township, was arrested the following month on charges of recklessly endangering another, carrying a firearm without a license and related offenses all connected to the shooting. He was jailed then on no bail.
Clark has a hearing in county court next week on those charges.
Durrant was the fourth person shot to death in the city in 2022. The first was Malik Davis, 39, of Williamsport, who was shot dead in a side yard at 718 Elmira St. on May 23. Ziar Young, 20, was murdered in his apartment at the Victoria Gardens, 653 Hepburn St., on Aug. 17. On the morning of Sept. 28, Heather Cohick, a 41-year-old single mother, was shot dead in her apartment at 884 W. Fourth St., about three long blocks east of where Durrant was gunned down.
No arrests have been made in any of these cases.