September: A month of non-stop body blows for Charlotte

September 2016 will be long remembered as one of the most challenging months in Charlotte’s history, with barrages of bad news and visceral gut punches following in swift succession.

For a fast-growing city with big aspirations, national exposure and media attention is something many Charlotteans and the city’s leaders perpetually crave. But this month, the city found the nation’s eye turned to Charlotte, over and over again, for the wrong reasons.

It’s not the city’s first experience with a rough September: Hurricane Hugo devastated Charlotte in September 1989, and the financial crisis came to a head in September 2008 as Wachovia tottered near failure.

This September started off with an escalating scandal at one of the city’s biggest employers, Wells Fargo, before moving to more lost sporting events and a failed House Bill 2 compromise. Then, the day after a proposed HB2 compromise fell apart, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police shot and killed 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott, sparking more than a week of protests that occasionally turned violent and drew nationwide coverage. Within two days, National Guard soldiers in armored vehicles were stationed on the city’s streets.

Wells Fargo

On Sept. 8, news of a major crisis brewing at Wells Fargo broke. The bank agreed to pay $185 million to settle allegations of “widespread illegal practices,” which included employees opening more than 2 million fake customer accounts to meet sales goals and receive bonuses.

Wells Fargo is based in San Francisco but has its largest employee base in Charlotte, where it employs more than 23,000 people after buying Wachovia in 2008.

The fallout has continued for weeks, with CEO John Stumpf enduring two grillings from lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have likened the bank to a criminal enterprise and have called for his resignation. This week, the bank said as many as 60,000 customer accounts in the Carolinas may have been opened without their consent.

NCAA, ACC leave

On Sept. 12, the National Collegiate Athletic Association said it was pulling seven championship games from North Carolina over opposition to the state’s controversial, House Bill 2, which limits legal protections for gay and transgender individuals. The NCAA’s decision raises questions about whether Charlotte will still be able to host first- and second-round men’s basketball tournament games in 2018.

Two days after the NCAA’s decision, the Atlantic Coast Conference announced that it was pulling its title football game from Charlotte over opposition to HB2. The game was supposed to be played Dec. 3 at Bank of America Stadium, and had been contracted to be played here through 2019. The conference said this week that the title game will instead be played in Orlando.

The NCAA and ACC’s decisions came about two months after the NBA moved the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte over HB2.

The law, signed in March, nullified a Charlotte ordinance that had generated controversy by protecting transgender people who use government restrooms based on their gender identity.

HB2 compromise

On Sept. 18, Charlotte business leaders and the Charlotte Chamber called a rare weekend press conference to announce that they had worked out a deal to repeal HB2.

There was a catch, however: Charlotte would have to repeal its non-discrimination ordinance first, legislative leaders said.

But on Monday, Sept. 19, Mayor Jennifer Roberts announced City Council would not consider repealing its measure, meaning HB2 would remain. It was a major blow for business leaders who had hoped to push the city repeal through, eliminate HB2 and possibly regain some of the lost sporting events, especially the ACC Championship.

Keith Lamont Scott shooting

On Sept. 20, CMPD officer Brentley Vinson fatally shot Scott during a confrontation at a University-apartment complex. Vinson, who is also black, and other officers were trying to serve warrants on a different suspect when they said they spotted Scott rolling a marijuana cigarette and holding a gun in his car in the parking lot.

The fallout was swift and severe. Following a wave of police shootings of black men and drawn quickly by social media, a crowd of hundreds gathered on Old Concord Road that night near the shooting scene. Within hours, police clad in riot gear used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd, while some protesters damaged police vehicles and blocked Interstate 85, setting fire to the contents of a tractor trailer.

And the unrest was far from over: The following night, Wednesday, Sept. 21, demonstrators gathered uptown. Though the night started peacefully with a crowd of several hundred marching and protesting police violence, it quickly turned violent after a protestor named Justin Carr was shot in the head in front of the Omni Hotel uptown. He died the next day. Another Charlotte man was charged with murder in the case. No motive has been released.

Cable news covered the protests live for hours, beaming images nationwide of uptown Charlotte enshrouded in tear gas. The protests and violence were front-page news the next day in newspapers across the country.

Some emerged from the crowd to smash windows and loot uptown businesses such as Buffalo Wild Wings and the Charlotte Hornets team shop. Even days after the demonstrations, bars, restaurants and hotels were imploring still-nervous customers to come back.

Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency, and sent in the National Guard and state highway troopers. By Thursday, Sept. 22, there were armored vehicles and soldiers with assault rifles in front of the Ritz-Carlton hotel uptown.

Protests and marches through the city have continued, though without further violence. At a Charlotte City Council meeting Monday, nearly 70 angry citizens spoke out, decrying the treatment of African American citizens in Charlotte and demanding the resignation of Roberts and Putney.

The state of emergency was lifted on Wednesday, but as October begins, the big question remains: Where does Charlotte go from here?

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 1:30 PM with the headline "September: A month of non-stop body blows for Charlotte."