A Warrenton man and a Henderson man were arrested early Sunday and charged with attempted murder after a shooting seriously wounded a man on Harriett Street about 3:20 a.m.
Officers responding to the shooting in the 500 block of Harriett Street found James Wayne Williams, 53, of 305 Zene St. lying in the road with a serious wound to his upper back. Williams was taken to Maria Parham Medical Center for initial treatment, then was transferred to an undisclosed out-of-town hospital, according to a news release issued by Henderson police Lt. V.W. Johnson.
The shooting occurred during a house party with several hundred people nearby, and many partygoers witnessed the incident, police reported. Officers were able to broadcast descriptions of the two assailants and their vehicle, and Warren County sheriff’s officers soon spotted a vehicle and suspects who fit the descriptions on Sulphur Springs Road in Warren.
Investigators recovered a semiautomatic pistol, the news release reported.
Held under $100,000 secured bond each in the Vance County Jail are Percel Richardson, 49, of 451 Sulphur Springs Road in Warrenton and James M. Ragland, 37, of 476 Evans Road in Henderson.
State Department of Correction records available online show a 49-year-old Percelle Richardson in Warren County who was paroled Jan. 15 from the Warren Correctional Institution after serving eight years for a habitual-felon conviction in Vance County. The parole was due to end this month.
Richardson’s record includes felony convictions in Vance, Warren, Franklin and Granville counties and Virginia for breaking and entering, larceny, receiving stolen goods, and burglary at least as far back as 1975.
His first conviction as a habitual felon came Nov. 15, 1990, when he was sentenced in Franklin County to a term of up to 14 years in prison. Richardson was released Oct. 31, 1994, less than four years later.
Richardson’s second habitual-felon sentence resulted from convictions for a series of crimes that began within 10 months of his 1994 release.
Richardson’s record does not include any violent crimes.
The Department of Correction record for James M. Ragland does show a history of violence.
Ragland served four years and three months in prison after being convicted March 22, 1993, of robbery with a dangerous weapon and second-degree kidnapping in Vance County.
Ragland received probation and a suspended jail sentence for a 2002 larceny conviction in Vance, then had the sentence activated after he was convicted of possessing stolen goods March 29, 2004, in Warren County. He was released Aug. 17 after 4 1/2 months behind bars.
The police news release on the Harriett Street shooting did not reveal a possible motive for Richardson and Ragland to shoot Williams.
J.B. West was the reporting officer for the shooting, and Detective J.N. Ragland was assigned the investigation.