Shooter in car randomly fired at people in Charlotte, killing one, police say
Someone randomly shot from a car at bicyclists, people in cars and others gathered on a street, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said Tuesday.
Police believe four shootings early Tuesday, one of them fatal, are connected to the same shooter, Deputy Chief Tonya Arrington said at a late afternoon news conference.
Police have increased patrols and are offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest, Arrington said.
“We need help solving these,” the deputy chief said.
Police urged anyone with information about the shootings to call the CMPD homicide unit at 704-432-8477 or the Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 704-334-1600.
The shootings followed three fatal shootings on Monday that police say weren’t connected to Tuesday’s shootings.
“It’s been a violent 24-hour stretch for the city of Charlotte,” Lt. Crystal Fletcher said at the news conference.
At 1:05 a.m. Tuesday, a person in a car was fatally shot by someone in another car while traveling outbound in the 3800 block of Statesville Avenue, police said.
Four minutes later, someone shot at a bicyclist near the intersection of Newland Road and Lasalle Street, Arrington said. The gunfire missed the bicyclist, she said.
Officers then came upon a driver who said bullets hit their vehicle as they drove on Lasalle Street near Interstate 77. The driver wasn’t hurt, police said.
The random shootings police believe are connected:
At 1:11 a.m., someone in a car fired shots into a group of people standing in the 2100 block of Catherine Simmons Avenue, Arrington said. Shots hit a home, and a woman inside was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries after being shot, she said.
At 1:25 a.m., shots hit a bicyclist in the 100 block of Hilary Circle. The bicyclist had non-life threatening injuries.
Police believe the shootings are connected because of their randomness, proximity to each other, that they happened within a short time period and because of evidence found at the scenes, Arrington said. She declined to specify the evidence.
“We have no confirmed suspect or suspects or verified description of a vehicle,” she said.
Arrington said she “doesn’t want to classify it as a serial shooter until we have more information.”
Monday homicides
The shootings aren’t connected to three homicides across Charlotte on Monday, Arrington said.
Just after 5:30 a.m., officers responding to a disabled vehicle call found 36-year-old Derrick Byas with a gunshot wound in an SUV in the 7300 block of Rea Road in south Charlotte, police said in a news release. That’s between Interstate 485 and Piper Glen Drive.
MEDIC pronounced Byas dead at the scene, CMPD said.
Just after 5:30 p.m. Monday, police found 37-year-old Daniel Gomez with a gunshot wound in the 8900 block of Cinnabay Drive in north Charlotte. MEDIC pronounced Gomez dead.
Police arrested 62-year-old Louis Gonzalez and charged him with voluntary manslaughter, Arrington said. The shooting was domestic-violence related involving two family members, she said.
At 8:45 p.m., 29-year-old LaMarcus Jackson was fatally shot in a parking lot in the 1500 block of Parker Drive west of uptown, police said. Three others were shot and injured, she said.
In a news release, CMPD said officers found two of the people with gunshot wounds and took them to a hospital, where MEDIC pronounced Jackson dead. The other person had non-life threatening injuries, CMPD said.
Two others who were shot took themselves to local hospitals, where one has life-threatening injuries and the other minor injuries, according to police.
Observer reporter Kate Robins contributed to this story.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
This story was originally published July 9, 2024 at 12:41 PM.