Two 16-Year-Old Men Found Dead, Third Found Injured In North Carolina. 18-Year-Old Shooting Suspect Arrested, Officials Say.

An 18-year-old has been arrested and charged in the deaths of two 16-year-old boys found shot to death in North Carolina, according to authorities.

Around 10:30 p.m. on March 21, officers responded to a report of a juvenile male being shot in Durham, WNCN-TV reported.

The victim’s parents transported him to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries, but police said the 16-year-old male is now in stable condition.

While officers were at the scene, the victim told them there may have been two additional victims who had been shot, WNCN-TV reported.

First responders deployed a drone for several hours and sent out a cadaver dog to search the area for these additional victims and eventually found them, officials said.

Around 8:00 a.m. on March 22, two 16-year-old boys, later identified as Angel Caneles Quintana and Osmar Burgos Banegas, were found and medical personnel pronounced both victims dead at the scene, according to WNCN-TV.

Later in the day on March 22, the Durham Police Department arrested Jorge Raul Benitez-Mendoza in connection to the shootings, officials said.

He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder, according to authorities. He was booked into the Durham County Detention Facility without bond.

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Investigators said the shootings did not appear to be random, but the relationship between Mendoza, Quintana and Banegas remains unknown. The family of Quintana talked with WNCN-TV and said the three teens were all friends.

Benitex-Mendoza’s sister, Carolina, talked with WNTN-TV and said “her sibling has had a history of acting up as a child, but she doesn’t believe he’s the person who committed the crime.”