Teen shooter from Facebook Live video has long history with police

Police, jail and court records reveal snippets of a troubled past for the 17-year-old with alleged gang ties who allegedly opened fire into a crowd on Ocean Boulevard June 18.

Derias J’Shaun Little, of Mt. Gilead, N.C.. was charged with seven counts of attempted murder for the shooting that left seven injured and captured national headlines after the melee was caught on a viral Facebook Live video.

The video appeared to show Little embroiled in a fight before he pulled a gun from his pants and fired into a crowd near Fourth Avenue North and Ocean Boulevard. A security guard at a nearby hotel fired back at Little, wounding the shooter, police said.

Little, who also is charged with carjacking and possessing a weapon during a violent crime, carjacked a nearby vehicle and fled the scene, but was apprehended minutes later in a parking garage of the Landmark Resort, police said. Little was transported to Grand Strand Medical Center, where he was treated for his injuries and kept under guard for three weeks.

But that wasn’t his first run-in with the law.

Little was 16 years old and a student at West Montgomery High School when he was arrested for stealing two pit bull puppies from a Mt. Gilead home on Sept. 23, 2015, according to N.C. incident reports. Jail records show he was booked five days later into the Montgomery County Detention Center but bonded out the following day.

He was arrested and booked into the same jail on a bench warrant for failing to appear in court Nov. 3, 2015, but was released the same day, records show.

Eight days later, Little again was arrested by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina. He was charged with resisting arrest and possessing a schedule II controlled substance — a schedule that includes drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine, an incident report states.

Little was released from jail Nov. 23, 2015, jail records show.

He was back in the Detention Center on Nov. 30, 2015, and was released the next day. It’s unclear what those charges were for, however, Little did have a probation violation that year, according to online court records.

Little again was arrested May 24, 2016, and was held at the Montgomery County jail until June 28, 2016, for felony counts of larceny and possessing stolen goods, according to incident reports and jail records.

Then, in the early evening of Aug. 6, 2016, someone broke into a home on Mayfair Drive in Mt. Gilead. Little was arrested and charged with felony breaking and entering, felony larceny after breaking and entering, criminal damage to property and felony conspiracy to break into a building, records show.

His latest arrest in North Carolina came Nov. 22, 2016, when Little was charged with possessing a weapon of mass destruction — specifically a sawed-off shotgun; possessing with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver marijuana; carrying a concealed gun; and being a minor in possession of a handgun, according to incident reports.

Little was given a $50,000 secured bond and stayed in jail until March 1, according to jail records.

Little is scheduled to be in a Montgomery County court room for the dog-napping charges and the misdemeanor probation violation on July 25. His next court date for the possession of stolen goods and felony larceny charges is scheduled for July 26.

Myrtle Beach police Chief Amy Prock told city leaders after the shooting that her department had spoken to authorities in North Carolina and learned Little was known to have been “involved in gang activity” there. She said their investigation also revealed Little knew his immediate victim in the shooting.

“The incident stems from another conflict that originated in North Carolina where (the shooter and his first victim) … are from,” Prock said.

This story was originally published July 11, 2017 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Teen shooter from Facebook Live video has long history with police."