Wilma Jean Petty helped everyone, her family says. Now who will help find her killer?
Loved ones of 63-year-old Wilma Jean Petty describe her as “sunny spirit” who looked after her neighborhood and never hesitated to provide a meal or home to someone in need. Now they want help finding her killer.
Petty died Saturday after being shot in the 300 block of West 28th Street. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene around 10:40 p.m. Her family is asking anyone with information on her death to come forward to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.
Her daughter Sadé Petty, 33, said that her mother never met a stranger and was often called “momma” by all the children in her neighborhood and at church.
Petty was a disciplinarian but also a parent who knew how to listen to children, especially when they were upset, her daughter said. Once, Sadé Petty said, a friend ran away from home and, rather than leaving the city, came to stay with her. Her mother let the friend stay in hiding for a week before she sent her back home and told her to behave.
At a press conference on Wednesday, police said Petty was an “innocent victim” and was at the residence for an 11-year-old’s birthday party. CMPD Lt. Bryan Crum said the event was intended to be a small gathering but more people, whom the family did not recognize, arrived and gathered outside. Eventually there was an “altercation that resulted in gunfire,” he said.
“This case is very troubling to us. ... We need the community’s help to solve this case,” Crum said.
The Rev. John Cleghorn, pastor at Petty’s church, Caldwell Presbyterian, spoke to media at the police headquarters on Wednesday and asked for help solving the case.
Cleghorn said Petty had arrived at the birthday party, which was in her old neighborhood, to pick up her granddaughter. A friend had just offered to fix her a plate of food.
“Something happened, and within minutes, she was dead beside her car — having never made it in to the party,” Cleghorn said.
The reward for information that leads to an arrest is $10,000, Crum said. Around $5,000 of that comes from money raised by the church and the rest is from Crime Stoppers and Inlivian, formerly known as the Charlotte Housing Authority.
According to police, Charlotte has had 69 homicides so far this year. This time last year — the city’s worst year for homicides in a decade — Charlotte had experienced 61 killings.
A mother with a singing voice
As skyscrapers and corporations have come to Charlotte, Petty’s life represented a story “that doesn’t get told enough,” Cleghorn said in an interview.
Petty grew up in north Charlotte and attended West Charlotte High School, her daughter and Cleghorn said. He said Petty went to two churches that were racially integrated and had lived a dignified life both as a child and as an adult.
Last year, Petty traveled to Jerusalem and spent some time praying at the Wailing Wall, Cleghorn said.
Petty worked many jobs in her life, including as a caregiver for the elderly and as a house cleaner, her daughter said. Recently she had worked for a company that disinfected homes and dealerships during the coronavirus pandemic.
In the evenings, Petty loved to watch cartoons, her daughter said, whether it was original animations such as Bugs Bunny and the Flintstones to modern films such as “Wreck-It-Ralph.”
At church, Petty sang two signature songs: “Rough Side of the Mountain” and another about “God’s grace and mercy,” Cleghorn said. While her voice was not formally trained, he said, it was “true” and informed by her own tragedies, such as losing her own daughter a few years ago.
Petty loved to bake and cook and was famous for always bringing a broccoli casserole to gatherings — even when she was specifically asked not to bring the dish, her daughter said.
The nature of Petty’s death has been surreal and difficult to process, Sadé Petty said. Her mother was never violent and often diffused arguments, she said.
“I can deal with her passing, but just the way that it happened is what got everybody in shock,” Petty said. “... for her to be killed by a gunshot is a lot to wrap my head around.”
Petty leaves behind three sisters, a brother, two children and a granddaughter, Sadé Petty said. A grandson is due to be born in November, the month his grandmother was born, she said.
“I woke up on Sunday morning and realized (this) wasn’t a dream,” she said.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.
