With 54 homicides so far, Charlotte is on pace for another unusually deadly year
With the first half of 2020 now behind it, Charlotte is on pace to have another unusually murderous year.
The city has recorded 54 homicides so far this year, compared to 52 this time last year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department spokesman Rob Tufano said Wednesday.
In 2019, the city recorded 107 homicides — the highest number since the early 1990s.
A spate of killings along Beatties Ford Road have added to this year’s homicide toll.
Four people were killed in a barrage of gunfire after a street party on Beatties Ford Road turned violent on June 22.
On Tuesday, a 14-year-old boy became the latest victim. Police said Terreon Izavier Geter was shot and killed after a fight broke out at an arcade on the 3100 block of Beatties Ford Road.
More than 80 percent of the this year’s homicide victims died from gunfire. Five were stabbed to death.
Of the 54 homicide victims, 40 were Black, six were Hispanic or Latino, six were white and two were Asian, according to an Observer analysis of CMPD records.
Half of the 54 victims were 28 years old or younger. All but seven of the victims were men.
Just under half of the killings are still under investigation and have not resulted in an arrest. While the circumstances of half the homicides are unknown, nine began with arguments, 10 were linked to domestic violence, and 10 were related to drugs, gangs or robberies.
‘Tearing us apart’
The deaths have left families confused, hurt and searching for answers.
Demario or “Mario” Tillman, 29, died on May 23 following a shooting. Loved ones said Tillman had a quiet but strong presence and, above all, loved his family and his three sons.
A former Marine, Tillman had worked at Roof Above – formerly called the Men’s Shelter of Charlotte – first at the front desk, then as a supervisor and then most recently as a housing retention specialist.
The homeless shelter could sometimes be unpredictable, but Tillman led with a steady hand and kept everyone calm and on schedule, Chief Engagement Officer Randall Hitt said.
Tillman would joke that managing the men’s shelter was nothing compared to raising three boys — Peyton, Amar and Levi.
Tillman’s aunt, Marla Dunovant, said that his children and his family were his top priority. He believed in living an active lifestyle, coaching sports teams for his children and filling their home with bicycles and trophies. He loved to make his sons laugh, often flexing his muscles in jest and wearing Christmas-themed pajamas during the holidays, she said.
The day before his death, Tillman had thrown a birthday party for his twins, who were turning eight. Normally, they would have gone to the beach, Dunovant said. But because of the coronavirus pandemic, the family stayed home for an evening of grilling and playing outdoors.
One of the children ran through the house yelling “best birthday ever!” Dunovant recalled.
Tillman was going to turn 30 in August and was planning to have a party then, Dunovant said. That surprised her since Tillman was a private and quiet person.
On the day of the shooting, Tillman had just been at his cousin’s housewarming party, Dunovant said. He had left to pick up his sons from a birthday party, she said.
Dunovant said the family knows little for certain about what happened before Tillman was shot.
Just 15 minutes before Dunovant heard that Tillman had been shot, he had been on the phone with his grandmother, she said.
The following day, 27-year-old Darryanna Hearn turned herself in and was charged with murder, police said.
“We don’t know what happened … This is really tearing us apart,” Dunovant said in an interview in May. “People can speculate all day but it’s in the hands of God and in the hands of the homicide detectives.”
‘Nobody’s saying stop’
The increase in homicides is part of a broader uptick in violence across the city.
For the first half of 2020, there were 3,521 reported violent crimes in the city, according to CMPD data. That’s up about 2 percent over last year, and 21 percent over 2018.
Shootings are also on the rise. For the first half of the year, there were about 225 gunshot cases. That’s up 27 percent over the same period last year — and 50 percent over the average for the five-year period from 2015 through 2019, according to CMPD spokesman Blake Page.
Community activist Robert Dawkins said the killings of the past 18 months highlight the need for a new approach aimed at preventing violence.
“We’ve got to take proactive steps,” said Dawkins, who serves as political director of the social justice group Action NC. “This is getting ready to be the new normal if we don’t interrupt it.”
Rev. James Barnett, founder of the Stop the Killing Crusade, said the trends trouble him. He called for the Black community, the faith community and public officials to speak out against the violence with a “unified voice.”
“If we don’t do something, this year is going to be worse than last year,” he said. “Crime is running rampant in this community now. And nobody’s saying stop.”
So far this year, about three quarters of the city’s homicide victims were Black. Barnett said that while many in the Black community are outraged when police kill African Americans, they tend to be less so when Black people kill each other.
“It’s like Black lives don’t matter unless they’re killed by the police,” said Barnett, who is Black.
For many of Charlotte’s killers, gun charges are nothing new. From 2014 through 2018, Mecklenburg prosecutors dismissed nearly seven of every 10 weapons charges, a higher rate than any other urban county in North Carolina, a Charlotte Observer investigation found.
The newspaper found that many whose charges are dismissed go on to be charged with more serious crimes, including murder.
In January, Mecklenburg County District Attorney laid out plans for a crackdown against violent crime, vowing to take more murders and gun crimes to trial.
Staff Writer Gavin Off contributed.
This story was originally published July 2, 2020 at 1:23 PM.
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