North Charlotte house where shooting happened was a regular pool party hangout
A pool party in North Charlotte over the weekend turned deadly and chaotic seemingly out of nowhere, neighbors and people who were there told The Charlotte Observer.
The homeowner rented out the house’s pool online, said a man who rents a room in the home.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said that Richard Jeddiah Thomas, 20, died in the shooting on Hucks Road on Sunday. At least four other people were injured. CMPD announced no arrests as of Monday afternoon.
Partygoers parked their cars in the grass on Monday, as they had the day before, then ambled under police tape and searched for their belongings in the wreckage left in the backyard. Shoes and trash were strewn about.
“Everybody was having a good time,” one person who looked for his belongings on Monday and who asked not to be named recalled to The Charlotte Observer. “It was a pool vibe. I guess they let the wrong people in.”
He remembered the party running later than expected, and people there having “good energy.” He paid a small fee online to attend, and it was a legitimate event, he said. He guessed that 120 people were there.
The backyard was full, with some overflow past the gate leading into it, he said. Suddenly, he heard about nine shots ring out, he said, and everyone “scattered.” A pause and more shots followed that, he said.
He saw someone on the ground with a hole in his chest, and someone else with a hole in her leg, he said.
The house’s owner rents the pool online, said Serge Arnaud, who said he pays his own rent for a room in the house. The Observer’s news partner, WSOC, spoke to the home’s owner and also reported that its pool was rented out for a party on Sunday.
“That ain’t got nothing to do with the people who live there,” Arnaud said of the shooting in a phone interview.
He had just finished a 12-hour shift at work when he saw from his bedroom window “a bunch of kids running and flying away,” then police, he said.
Parties at the house started last year, said a neighbor, who also asked not to be named. The neighbor said the party house’s yard was filled with cars, people came and went, and loud music boomed. When gunshots rang out, they at first sounded like fireworks, the neighbor said. Then a crowd of people fled all at once.
Arnaud never worried about the crowds in the backyard until Sunday’s violence, he said.
“They had pool parties before, and that never happened,” he said.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.
This story was originally published March 24, 2026 at 5:00 AM.