news-record.com

RALEIGH (MCT) — Nicholas Lightner, the 20-year-old son of businessman and anti-gang activist Bruce Lightner, was shot three times Monday during a confrontation in Southeast Raleigh. He is expected to survive.

Nicholas Lightner was shot around 4 p.m. Monday outside 410 Montague Lane, Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue said. Michael Rowland, a 20-year-old whose address is listed as "anywhere," was charged Tuesday with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill. He was being held at Wake County Jail with bail set at $1 million.

Bruce Lightner said his son told him that he was walking down Montague Lane when a man "just walked up and started shooting." Nicholas Lightner said he had an argument with the man the day before but told his father that he didn't know the man's name.

''He has not told me what their beef was," Bruce Lightner said. "It's still not clear in my mind exactly what happened or why."

Bruce Lightner, the son of Clarence Lightner, a civil rights leader and former Raleigh mayor, has been involved in community activism for years, most recently with Project Ricochet, committed to steering children away from gangs.

When asked if his son is a gang member, Bruce Lightner didn't hesitate.

''I don't believe in my heart that he is."

Nicholas Lightner lives with his father above Lightner Funeral Home on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. He has had brushes with the law, including a conviction in 2008 for misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, and a string of traffic offenses.

''He's a good kid. He just hangs out with the wrong crowd -- that's what I've been trying to get a handle on the last couple of years," Bruce Lightner said.

Abeni El-Amin, one of Project Ricochet's co-founders, described the shooting as "absolutely devastating" and said it re-emphasizes the need for a new community initiative to fight street violence. "It gives us greater levels of urgency to put things in place," El-Amin said.

''We've got to do something to get guns out of kids' hands," Bruce Lightner said.