Hickory Police investigate a shooting, where a teenage boy died and a 3-year-old boy was hospitalized.

Officers responded Thursday night to the 900 block of 1st Street SW. Both the 16-year-old and 3-year-old were transported to Frye Regional, where the teenager, Devin O'Dariess Lee died from his injuries. The younger boy was being treated for non-life threatening injuries after being struck by shrapnel.

The suspect in the shooting, 17-year-old Zamare Nadja Davidson of Hickory, died as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a residence in Burke County. A second suspect, 20-year-old Jonathan Tyler Laxton of Conover, was taken into custody in Burke County and charged with 1 Count of Accessory After the Fact. The incident appears to be the result of a dispute between Davidson and Lee.

Anyone with information in this case is asked to call Hickory Police at 328-5551.

North Carolina Forest Service Rangers have charged 38-year-old Barry Scott McCoyle of Lytle Mountain Road, with 14 counts of setting fire to woodlands, brush lands and grasslands in the Marion, P.G. and Sugar Hill areas over the past 4 years. McDowell deputies and State Probation officers conducted a search of McCoyles’s residence Tuesday night, and located 20 grams of meth, a handgun and 40 explosive blasting caps. Also assisting in the case were members of the McDowell County Fire Marshal’s Office, SBI, U.S.Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and U.S.Forest Service. Anyone having information concerning roadside fires in McDowell County should call Fire Marshal Craig Walker at 652-4000.

Hickory Police are looking for a suspect from an armed robbery Thursday night, at the Speedway convenience store at 4431 North Center Street.

Police responded just after 10:45, and discovered that the suspect had entered the store, displayed a handgun and demanded money. The suspect left the store after receiving an  undisclosed amount of money.

The suspect description is, a slender-build black male, wearing a black hoodie, black pants, gloves and a mask.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call Hickory Police at 328-5551.

High school students are at risk of becoming addicted to nicotine – that according to the state’s department of health and human services following an analysis of vaping devices confiscated from students at seven schools in various parts of NC.

Nicotine- the addictive drug found in cigarettes- was present in 85-percent of e-cigarette and vaping devices analyzed.

Health officials report youth are not always aware that the vaping devices contain nicotine.

One study from 2018 indicates that 11-point-5 percent of teens in the 8^th through 12^th grade perceive they are only vaping flavors without nicotine.

From 2011 to 2017, e-cigarette use by high school students increased nearly 900-percent; and 400-percent among middle school students.

Officials voice concern over the growing use of nicotine by school-age children because human brain development continues until the age of 25; while nicotine can hamper brain development, attention, learning and memory.

Vaping products are not scheduled to be fully regulated by the FDA until August 2022.

Quit-line-NC is the state’s tobacco cessation program which helps people quit e-cigarettes and other tobacco products.

For free help to quit, call 1-800-Quit-Now.