On April 21, 2024, at about 12:25 a.m., Statesville police responded to a 911 call at a residence in the 600 block of Stewart Court and found 52-year-old Richard Wayne Pledger, known as Pumpkin, inside with multiple gunshot wounds. Emergency responders pronounced Pledger dead at the scene.

Authorities later identified 30-year-old Devin Emanuel Rankin as the suspect. Rankin was arrested on June 27, 2024, at a residence on North Lackey Street in Statesville by the U.S. Marshals Carolina Regional Fugitive Task Force with assistance from the Iredell County Sheriff’s Department and Statesville Police. He was charged with first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a felon, and discharging a firearm within city limits, and held in the Iredell County Jail without bond. The investigation into the circumstances of the shooting remains ongoing.

Richard Pumpkin Pledger is remembered by friends and family as kindhearted and helpful. Does anyone have information about the events at Stewart Court that night or saw anything related to this case?