Arrest made in fatal Beatties Ford Road shooting

A 47-year-old man has turned himself in to police in connection with a fatal shooting early Sunday on Beatties Ford Road near La Salle Street in west Charlotte.

Shelton Andre Kimble will face a charge of murder for the death of Tyrone Matthew Burch, 45. Kimble came to police headquarters early Sunday and was arrested.

Burch was found lying in a parking lot with a gunshot wound around 12:16 a.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to a report from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. The two knew each other and had a disagreement prior to the shooting, the report says.

Burch’s death is the first homicide of 2016. Last year Charlotte’s homicide rate hit a six-year high and nearly a 50 percent increase over 2014, with 62 people killed.

The shooting happened in CMPD’s Metro Division, which had 13 homicides last year – more than any other police division.

CMPD Chief Kerr Putney told the Observer that his department has launched a pilot program in the Metro Division to stop violent crimes such as Kimble’s killing.

Under the program, the department’s sergeants are being asked to come up with plans to combat emerging crime trends as they occur. They can also ask for reinforcements from other divisions if necessary.

The department is also trying to more aggressively make arrests in aggravated assaults, the most serious attacks that usually involve a weapon. If the suspect in an aggravated assault remains on scene, Putney said officers are instructed to make an arrest in most cases. That gets a violent person off the streets, Putney said, but also prevents retaliatory violence.

“It’s a more intense focus on aggravated assaults,” Putney said. “We’re doing it in areas where we have our most violent crimes.”

The tactic is being used in the Metro Division, just northwest of uptown and in the neighboring North Tryon division. In the past, in some cases, officers would tell alleged victims to go to the Mecklenburg magistrate’s office to obtain an arrest warrant. Having an officer investigate, obtain probable cause and make a case before the magistrate takes the onus off victims, who often declined to make the trip downtown.

Putney said the department is taking the same tactic in domestic violence cases, arresting the aggressor on scene to prevent more violence.

This story was originally published January 3, 2016 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Arrest made in fatal Beatties Ford Road shooting."