Homeless man arrested after death of man near Charlotte elementary school
Police charged a 53-year-old homeless man with first-degree murder after the death of another man near an east Charlotte elementary school Monday.
Natt Soth, arrested Tuesday, told Charlotte-Mecklenburg police he stabbed the man after the man repeatedly assaulted Soth with a wooden stick and rocks using a slingshot, according to a police affidavit filed in court.
Police responded to reports of gunshots in the 6300 block of Barrington Drive at 4:02 p.m. near Devonshire Elementary School, a press release said.
Police found the man in a wooded area of the park, Maj. Jesus Rendon said at a press conference Monday. MEDIC pronounced the man dead at the scene. Rendon said it wasn’t clear what caused his death.
Rendon said the school was placed on lockdown as a precaution while police secured the area and investigated.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools said in an email to The Charlotte Observer that families received messages about the lockdown. A message said the lockdown was from 4:20 p.m. to 4:51 p.m. while 11 students were still at the school at the time.
The victim hasn’t been identified, but the police affidavit said he was a Hispanic male with a “large wound/laceration to the stomach.”
A witness told police he was staying with the homicide victim at a shelter in the woods behind the park. He told police two men, one of whom was Soth, approached the shelter. The witness said Soth told him to leave.
The witness told police he left but heard a fight between Soth and the victim.
Shortly after, he said he heard a gunshot. He told police he turned around and saw Soth running toward a nearby Family Dollar and the other man Soth was with running toward the park.
The witness said he went back to the shelter and found the homicide victim with stab wounds, and ran to find someone with a phone to call 911.
The affidavit said police interviewed Soth, who accused the homicide victim of “always bothering him.”
Police viewed surveillance video at a nearby Shell Station on The Plaza and saw the homicide victim assault Soth with a wooden stick and slingshot, the affidavit said. The video showed the man went into the woods and Soth followed in after.
Soth told police he went into the woods to confront the man at his shelter, but he was assaulted by him and another man.
“The other Hispanic male had a knife, but he dropped it and the defendant grabbed the knife,” the affidavit said. “The defendant stated he got into physical altercation with the victim and he stabbed him with the knife and then ran away towards the Family Dollar.”
Soth is being held at the Mecklenburg County jail without bond.
This story was originally published October 7, 2025 at 11:51 AM.
