CMPD arrests 20 from two rival ‘gang-like’ groups in north Charlotte

A multiple-agency task force ended with the arrests of 20 young men – most in their 20s and living in north Charlotte – who police say belonged to two groups that were engaged in “gang-like” violence against each other, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Capt. Mike Harris said Wednesday.

The charges against the 20 range from shooting into occupied houses to first-degree murder, Harris said.

“These are dangerous individuals who were intent on hurting each other, and as the violence came to a head, they didn’t care if innocent people were in the way or not,” he told reporters at Sunstone Drive off Statesville Road, where one of the groups grew up and lived. “It wasn’t until the violence started affecting the community that we decided to put a task force together to combat it.”

The three-month task force consisted of multiple CMPD divisions and other agencies. They included the anti-crime unit, which Harris commands; homicide detectives; focus mission teams in CMPD’s North and Westover divisions; probation officers; the district attorney and U.S. attorney offices; and federal ATF agents.

Harris said the two groups fit the definition of gangs in a “non-traditional sense,” but “we looked at them as opposing groups that were committing violent acts against each other.”

Police charged one of the 20, Antonio Rollins, 22, with first-degree murder. Harris said the task force was able to make an arrest in the November 2014 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Jose Cuestas at a service station on Sunset Road near Sunstone.

Rollins and four others were charged with 13 counts of shooting into an occupied dwelling.

One of the 20 was a fugitive from charges in Fort Bend County in Texas.

Harris said the violence went back to early 2014, and as it escalated, the task force was assembled in June to combat the violence. “There were a number of shootings into occupied dwellings,” he said. “We put pressure on them, and things started to cease.”

He said it took detectives building relationships with neighbors in Sunstone to get information that helped lead to the arrests. “The diligence of detectives and all the groups involved really paid off,” he said. “The community’s involvement in any investigation is key.”

Many neighbors declined to speak to reporters for fear of retribution.

One neighbor who spoke to the Observer on the condition she remain unnamed said the violence in the Sunstone neighborhood had been going on for 10 years.

“I watched a lot of those boys grow up,” she said. “Now they’re men, and their toys got bigger and more dangerous. Their toys got more violent, and people got hurt.”

Though police aren’t labeling the opposing groups as gangs, the neighbor said the men who grew up in her neighborhood have a name for their group – the “Sunstone Crips.”

She has two “warning” bullet holes in her house. She’s thought about moving. “But I don’t want these guys to think that the trouble they’ve caused forced us to leave,” she said. “I want to leave because we chose to leave.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 6:39 PM with the headline "CMPD arrests 20 from two rival ‘gang-like’ groups in north Charlotte."