Crime & Courts

Video shows suspects firing multiple rounds at passing vehicle outside Charlotte store

Editor’s note: A second suspect was arrested, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said in a tweet on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

Video released by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department shows two juveniles firing multiple rounds — one with an assault rifle — at a vehicle outside a Charlotte convenience store.

Police arrested one of the suspects and are searching for the second shooter in the April 30 attack, CMPD Detective Darnley Brathwaite said on the nearly 3-minute video released Thursday on YouTube.

Video released by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department on Thursday, May 12, 2022, shows two juveniles firing multiple rounds outside a Charlotte convenience store on April 30, 2022.
Video released by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department on Thursday, May 12, 2022, shows two juveniles firing multiple rounds outside a Charlotte convenience store on April 30, 2022. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department

The video shows the suspects leaving the store in the 5700 block of Wyalong Drive as a car pulls toward the store. Wyalong Drive is off Idlewild Road in east Charlotte.

“You see the suspect pull out an assault rifle and begin to lay rounds down towards the victim vehicle, ultimately striking the victim two times in the buttocks with non life-threatening injuries.” Brathwaite says in the video.

The vehicle has its rear driver-side window open, but no guns are visible, Brathwaite says.

“You also see (the other juvenile suspect) pull out a 9 mm handgun and, after ducking behind a red vehicle parked there, you can then see him shooting the weapon as well,” according to the detective.

A nearby resident also reported bullets hitting their home and vehicle, CMPD posted on Twitter.

Both suspects then “jump in the white suspect vehicle and flee the scene,” Brathwaite says in the video.

CMPD described the shooting as “a brazen attack.”

Police urged anyone with information about the shooting or who knows the whereabouts of the second juvenile to call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

This story was originally published May 14, 2022 at 7:00 AM.

Joe Marusak
The Charlotte Observer
Joe Marusak has been a reporter for The Charlotte Observer since 1989 covering the people, municipalities and major news events of the region, and was a news bureau editor for the paper. He currently reports on breaking news. Support my work with a digital subscription
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