'Human Life Is Not Being Valued,' Winston-Salem Police Chief Says After String Of Shootings

An attack on a police substation has been linked to the discovery of two shooting victims from the suspect's family, according to Winston-Salem police.

Chief Catrina Thompson said in a press conference that at around 3:30 p.m. Monday a man fired about a dozen rounds from a semi-automatic rifle at the district office on North Point Boulevard. About 50 people were in the office, but no one was wounded.

Police saw the man who they say fired at them and began chasing his vehicle. The pursuit led to Hanes Park, about four miles away. The suspect got out of his vehicle and fired at the officers, then dropped the rifle, Thompson said.

He fled into the park but continued shooting at officers with a handgun. The officers returned fire, striking the suspect. Thompson says once he was down, officers began giving him medical assistance.

The shooting led to shutdowns including area schools and the William G. White YMCA. No one other than the suspect was shot. An officer involved in the pursuit, 22-year-old Joshua Huntley, was injured when he crashed his car on Robinhood Road.

The suspect has been identified as 26-year-old William Coleman Scott. He is facing an attempted murder charge. Thompson said he was in stable condition at a local hospital.

As part of the investigation, officers went to Scott's parents' home in the Waterford community of Clemmons. There they found Scott's mother dead, the victim of an apparent homicide, according to Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough.

Her name was not released during the press conference pending notification of family members, Kimbrough said. William Scott did not live with his parents.

Winston-Salem police went to Scott's 84-year-old grandmother's house on Tabor View Lane in Winston-Salem, where she was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound, Thompson said.

Her death is also being investigated as a homicide.

It was the department's second impromptu press conference of the day. Earlier, investigators added new information to a rash of shootings over the weekend that left three people dead and four people wounded.

It's part of a national trend of mass shootings across the country that over the weekend also hit Savannah, Georgia, Austin, Texas, and Chicago.

“Human life is not being valued,” Thompson said. “Guns are being used to take the lives of members of our communities all across the country.”