‘Never be the same.’ Unsolved Beatties Ford mass shooting as raw as ever, 2 years later
It’s been two years, but Charles Billings still hasn’t gone to his son’s grave.
His wife, his daughter, and his grandkids go once or twice a month, flowers in their hands to lay at Jamaa Cassell’s headstone.
But for Billings, he’s keeping memories of his son alive away from York Memorial Park cemetery.
“I don’t want to remember my son as…” he says, trailing off, eyes far away. “I don’t want to talk to dirt.”
Cassell, Billings’ son, was one of four people killed in a shooting and subsequent mayhem at a huge block party over Father’s Day and Juneteenth weekend in 2020 on Beatties Ford Road.
A few hundred people had gathered that Sunday night, a much bigger crowd that the previous two nights of parties near Lasalle Street and Dr. Webber Avenue on Beatties Ford Road. After several hours, gunfire erupted. Police would later say two people fired their guns in the crowd.
Three people — Christopher Gleaton, Dairyon Stevenson and Jamaa Cassell — were killed by gunfire, one — Kelly Miller — fatally struck by a car as the shooting started, and at least 10 others were injured.
In the days and weeks after the shooting, as the families of victims pleaded with the community to come forward with evidence and authorities to track down the people responsible, no suspects were arrested and no motive was determined. Over 180 shell casings were found at the scene, and police have deduced that at least 10 guns are linked to the shooting. In October, investigators recovered a gun linked to casings recovered from the scene of the shooting, according to WSOC.
But two years later, many of the victims’ loved one’s questions remain unanswered: Who or how many people were shooting? And why?
Feeling forgotten
Billings has good days and bad days since losing his only son.
“But most of them are bad,” he said.
He and his wife Bridgette don’t talk about the shooting to one another but they remember the day two years later like it was yesterday — the phone call from the hospital, arriving to hear their son had already died. When Billings thinks about it, it breaks his heart all over again.
“If you lost a child, you can’t explain…this feeling around you,” he said. “You’ll never be the same.”
Time hasn’t dulled the grief for the other families, either.
The Stevenson family gathers every month on the 22nd in the house Dairyon grew up in to remember him.
His father Kenny understands the ebbs and swells of Billings’ grief well.
“One day, you’re happy, you’re upbeat, you’re laughing, you’re smiling and just thinking about all the silliness in him,” he said. “And then, the next day, you miss him.”
Stevenson, whose grief was always more subdued, has gotten more angry as time has gone by. He was willing to wait for justice two years ago, but as the case has remained unsolved, his patience is running out.
“It’s disheartening,” he said. “I’m thinking that they’re doing their due diligence to make sure they actually nail the guy. But you know, it’s kind of bothersome when you don’t hear anything at all.”
When asked for an update on the case this week, CMPD said in an emailed statement, “This continues to be an open and ongoing investigation. There are not any updates to share publicly at this time.”
But Chantell Miller, sister of Kelly Miller, said she only hears updates about the case “from the streets” and on the news. She said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police haven’t reached out to her family in more than a year, after the lead detective on the case retired.
Though the same “team” has remained on the case, according to CMPD, the lead detective has changed three times. CMPD also said detectives have spoken with the families of each of the victims on “numerous occasions.”
“I understand that they don’t have any leads…. But I just want them to communicate with us,” she said. “Don’t just not talk to us and make us feel like we’re brushing this under the rug.”
The violence that night remains the worst mass shooting in Charlotte since two students were killed and four others were injured in a shooting at UNCC in April 2019. Billings and Miller say it feels like many people have forgotten what happened.
“If this had happened in Myers Park, you would have heard about it,” he said.
Years late
In March, Billings received a call from his niece, who said the memorials for the victims of the shooting at the intersection of Beatties Ford Road and Lasalle Street where the shooting took place, were gone.
The flowers had been removed, all traces of them cleared away.
“Why would you pick that place to clean?” was his first thought. “That is sacred to me.”
Around the same time, Mario Black got a similar panicked phone call from one of Dairyon’s relatives. Black, founder of Million Youth March of Charlotte and Salisbury, was there the night of the shooting and has since raised awareness of the crime and advocated for justice for the victims. He reached out to local news outlets and discovered that the city had cleaned the site in response to a 311 complaint.
After Black and the families expressed their disappointment, director of Solid Waste Services Rodney Jamison apologized, and the city made plans to create a more permanent memorial, Black said. A plaque will be installed and a tree will be planted to memorialize the four victims at 6 p.m. on June 17 in an event hosted by the city’s Alternative to Violence team.
Black said the gesture is nice, but the city has “never acknowledged the families properly” in the 24 months since the shooting.
Black has been advocating for the mayor to create a proclamation honoring the victims of the shooting. After some back and forth with the mayor’s spokesperson Jeremy Mills, Black said they compromised — the mayor will write letters to the families of the victims.
“Mayor Lyles commonly writes letters of condolences and remembrance for families who have been affected by violent crime,” Mills said in an email. “It is a personal touch she has done many times in recent years.”
But Black says it’s coming years late.
“It takes seconds to put some words on a piece of paper, stamp it with her signature, and show that the city cares,” he said.
Fighting for justice
Sunday evenings, when the family gathers at the house, are when Stevenson misses Dairyon the most.
“He’s always on everybody’s mind,” he said. “We’re taking it one day at a time. But as we come up on the two year anniversary, the emotions kind of come back.
“We just miss him. We miss him a lot.”
When Miller hears about shootings in Charlotte, it makes her think back to what her sister went through that night. She recalls Kelly’s laughter instead.
“I was thinking over the years that the pain would go away. But the more time goes by, you realize you’ll never see them again. Some days are better than others, but every day is a challenge.
“I want her to have justice, as well as my family.”
Black has planned the second annual march to honor the lives of the “Beatties Ford Four,” as he refers to them, for 7 p.m. on June 22, starting at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. Billings and Stevenson plan to attend, as well as representatives from the other families.
Black hopes the march creates a sense of unity he feels the community has been missing — a sense of unity he believes the community needs in order to get justice for the victims of the shooting.
Billings keeps imagining the day he can finally visit his son’s grave. Cassell would have been 41 next month.
“I picture myself when it’s all over... I will go straight there. And I will tell him, ‘I told you, I never break a promise. My promise is that ... I was gonna get you justice.
“So now I got you justice.’”
This story was originally published June 8, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
