By all accounts, Kydaryune “K.C." Curry was a teenager most people liked being around.

He was full of life, always laughing. He liked to play practical jokes. And when something needed fixing on his street in northern Mecklenburg County, K.C. was willing to lend a hand.

But at dusk on Sunday, something went wrong when a red SUV full of people pulled up in front of Curry’s house on Northgate Trail Drive, near the Cabarrus line, and fatally shot the 17-year-old high school junior.

On Tuesday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said they have charged five teenagers in the fatal shooting. The suspects, who have all been charged with first-degree murder, were identified as Bruck Birega Fekadu, 16; Sheldon Gregory, 17; Dedric Lorenzo McKenzie, 16; Jeremy Elijah Pate, 19; and Samuel Jerome Walker Jr., 18.

Police said the suspects told detectives they believed Curry had disrepected them a day earlier in the presence of a girl. On Sunday, the suspects confronted Curry, "physically assaulted and shot him," police said.

“It’s a crazy, senseless thing,” said Mike Dunn, middle school principal at First Assembly Christian School in Concord, who coached Curry on the football team there last year. “K.C. loved everything about life. He never knew a stranger – he could talk the wart off a frog. This absolutely has no clear explanation. I’m at a loss. I just don’t get it.”

Curry is Mecklenburg’s fifth teen homicide victim since March, and by late Monday Charlotte-Mecklenburg police had released little about the case.

Ron Hayes, a neighbor, was at a loss, too. At 6:15 p.m. Sunday, Hayes pulled out of his driveway to go to work and passed K.C., who was driving his BMW convertible “unusually fast for a residential street like this. I thought to myself he had to be running from someone, as fast as he was going.”

About 20 minutes later, Hayes’ wife called his cellphone and reported Curry had been shot.

The police report indicated that Curry was shot between 6:25 and 6:35 p.m. while standing in front of his house. Medics pronounced him dead at 6:52 p.m.

Monday, Hayes and his wife were distraught. Curry often helped him cut his grass, he said, and once when his 11-year-old son’s bicycle broke, K.C. was there to fix it.

“K.C. was known to be good with his hands,” Hayes said. “He was always working on cars, motorcycles and bikes. He told me he taught himself. I was impressed with that. Around here, he was sort of a fix-it guy, always willing to help.”

Dunn said the teenager had gone to First Assembly last year, but had transferred to Charlotte United Christian Academy for the current school year.

Calls to Charlotte United Christian weren’t returned Monday.

First Assembly held a prayer vigil Monday morning and after lunch, Dunn said. Both were well-attended.

“This was a kid who everyone liked,” he said. “Our thoughts and prayers go to his mother, Dr. (Benita) Turner, and her family. Our kids are struggling to make sense of it. We’re trying to walk them through it.”

Dunn said he didn’t know about Curry until late Sunday when his former players started calling.

“I got a call from one player and I thought he was playing a joke on me,” he said. “But then I heard the hurt in his voice.”