Five dead, two critically injured in 13-hour period of violence in Charlotte
Five people were killed in Charlotte between 10 p.m. Sunday and 11 a.m. Monday, raising the city’s homicide total to 50 in 13 hours.
Three of the victims were killed early Monday in a mass shooting on Beatties Ford Road, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said. Police said more than 100 shots were fired into a crowd of over 400 people at an outdoor party. (A fourth person who was shot at the same event died later in the week at a local hospital, police said.)
The other killings occurred in different parts of the city and CMPD has not suggested they are related:
- At 10:52 p.m. Sunday, police were called to the 1300 block of Varsity Lane in the University City area and found a male with gunshot wounds lying in the commons area of an apartment complex, according to a press release. The victim, who was identified as Tavarus Lashon Taybron, 24, died at the scene, CMPD said.
At 11 a.m. Monday, CMPD says officers found an adult female with a gunshot wound in the 5300 block of Montague, in southeast Charlotte. The victim, identified as Aviana Carter, 21, died at a local hospital. Detectives have charged Dashae McCain, 22, with murder in the case, CMPD said.
Investigators have identified the three killed in the Beatties Ford Road shootings as Kelly Miller, 29, Christopher Antonio Gleaton, 28, and Jamaa Keon Cassell, 38. (The fourth person who died later in the week was identified as Dairyon Dejean Stevenson, 31, CMPD said.)
Nine people in all were hit by bullets at the scene and five others were struck by cars as they scrambled through the street to escape the gunfire, officials said.
CMPD said it has yet to find witnesses to that shooting.
Charlotte had 107 killings last year, when the city suffered its highest homicide toll since 1993.
The 50 homicides so far in 2020 represent a slower rate, according to Charlotte Observer data.
However, if the current pace continues, Charlotte will log more than 100 homicides this year. That would put the city’s homicide rate at more than 12 for every 100,000 people — well above the city’s average homicide rate.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 3:14 PM.