The second victim in a pair of shootings on Friday has died.

Danny Lee Ellis, 29, who was shot in the head on Gay Street around 11 p.m. Friday night, was pronounced dead earlier this week at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, said Rocky Mount police Sgt. Carl Revis.

Charges against Ellis' suspected killers – Joshua Simmers, 20, and Joseph Sean Wing, 21 – have been upgraded to murder, said Rocky Mount police Lt. Brian McGrath.

Ellis was one of two victims shot in the head that night within about eight minutes of each other. The other, Marvin Braswell, 20, died that night, and his case is still under investigation as a homicide.

Police are also looking for suspects in another weekend shooting on the outskirts of Rocky Mount. Martin Charles Poll, 53, of Rocky Mount was shot in the chest Sunday evening following an altercation at the intersection of Hunter Hill and Halifax Roads, Revis said.

Poll was able to drive himself to Nash General Hospital, then was transferred to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, Revis said. He was listed in critical condition as of Tuesday evening, according to a hospital nursing coordinator.

Police are still looking for the shooter, who reportedly left the scene. Revis said police have not had an opportunity to interview the victim and have not identified a suspect in the case.

Revis said he did not know what the altercation may have been about or whether the involved parties knew one another. However, he did say there was light damage to the victim's car, which could indicate there was a traffic accident.

"We're investigating that right now," Revis said. "All we know is there was an altercation."

The incident Sunday night puts the number of shootings in Rocky Mount at five so far in 2007. A tow truck driver, William Corbett, 25, was shot outside a local sporting goods store early New Year's morning.

Three men – Delance V. McNeil, 27, Brian S. Ricks, 20, and Edward D. Ricks, 25 – were arrested in the shooting, and another, James Taylor, 24, surrendered to police days before.

Another man was shot and dumped in the woods off Tanner Road on Jan. 3. George Lee Perry, 32, was arrested in connection to the incident, charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill and first-degree kidnapping. Another suspect is sought.

McGrath said the large number of shootings to start the year is out of the norm.

"I would definitely consider it unusual and unprecedented in recent history," McGrath said.