Hospital system suspends employees after vaccine deadline + 2 injured in east Charlotte shooting

Hello, Charlotteans! Kristen here, back from a long weekend. Samuel Adams is dropping their limited-edition Utopia beer next month, but if you live in the Carolinas, you likely won’t be able to buy it. The brew has an alcohol by volume level of 28% and is illegal to sell in many states — including North and South Carolina. Learn more about the beer and brush up on your Carolinas booze regulations with McClatchy’s Tanasia Kenney.

Let’s talk about today’s headlines:

1. NC hospital system suspends 375 employees after COVID vaccine mandate deadline

Novant Health employees had a deadline of Sept. 15 to be compliant with a new program that required them to either get a dose of the COVID vaccine or get a medical or religious exemption. Now, nearly 400 employees who failed to comply have been suspended and put on a five-day unpaid suspension period with the chance to follow original orders.

Refusal to comply after that five-day period will result in termination, according to Novant.

As the Observer’s Hannah Smoot reports, 98.6% of more than 35,000 employees are compliant with the program. Workers who have gotten their first vaccine of Pfizer or Moderna have until Oct. 15 to get the second dose.

Employees who have an exemption must undergo weekly COVID testing, wear N95 masks or other PPE, and wear eye-protection while working on Novant premises, according to the hospital system.

In other COVID news: Gov. Roy Cooper said youth have the highest rate of COVID-19 cases in the state, and he called for an end to bullying at schools and at school boards that keeps them from taking precautions. Learn more with the News & Observer’s Josh Shaffer and Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan.

2. Toddler shot as teen, driver exchange gunfire with another vehicle, CMPD says

After the driver of a vehicle shot their 15- and 1-year-old passengers during a gunfight with another car Monday night, the passengers suffered serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, police said. De’Aaron Truesdale, 19, is the driver suspected, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

The details:

• Around 6:12 p.m. Monday, CMPD received a call of a possible assault with a deadly weapon in the 5700 block of East Independence Boulevard.
• Officers found a 15-year-old shot in the leg and the 1-year-old grazed by a bullet in the head. Both victims were transported to the hospital.
• A gold sedan pulled up alongside Truesdale’s truck, and Truesdale and the 15-year-old fired. Rounds from Truesdale’s weapon struck the teenager and the toddler, according to CMPD.

Truesdale is charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, child abuse inflicting serious injury, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, reckless driving and hit and run. The 15-year-old is charged with possession of a handgun by a minor, police said.

3. Heavy rains, colder temps expected with fall’s arrival in Charlotte

Is it time to break out the sweaters? Maybe, according to the National Weather Service. The Charlotte area could see heavy rain and cool temperatures with the arrival of fall on Wednesday, a National Weather Service meteorologist said Tuesday.

Here’s what to know:

• Tuesday’s predicted showers and thunderstorms could intensify on Wednesday afternoon and evening, NWS meteorologist Doug Outlaw told the Observer Tuesday morning.
• Cloud cover from Tuesday rains dropped the forecast high to 74 degrees. That’s 8 degrees below the normal historic average high for Sept. 21 in Charlotte.
• Highs could drop to 74 and 75 degrees on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
• Lows could drop to 52 degrees both days. The normal average historic low in Charlotte those days is 60 degrees, Outlaw said.
• Then, there’s an expected high of 80 degrees and low of 55 degrees on Sunday, Outlaw said.

Get the rest of the weather outlook with the Observer’s Joe Marusak.

4. Customer duped Amazon by returning wrong products, NC prosecutors say

Amazon lost over $290,000 to a North Carolina man, according to the Justice Department. How? He’d request refunds for expensive goods, like coffee machines and computers, and then never return them.

Hudson Hamrick, who lives in Charlotte, was charged Monday with wire fraud in the Western District of North Carolina, court filings show. He’s accused of carrying out more than 300 fraudulent transactions, according to the Observer’s Hayley Fowler.

How did this work?

• Hamrick would order a product, file a return and receive a refund.
• Instead of sending that product back, he is accused of returning a cheaper version that was often broken and worth less than the item he received.
• He succeeded in getting refunds for more than 270 products, about 250 of which were worth significantly less than what he initially ordered, court documents state.
• The alleged fraud lasted from October 2016 to some time in 2020.

“Amazon has systems in place to detect suspicious behavior, and teams in place to investigate and stop prohibited activity,” the company said. “There is no place for fraud at Amazon and we will continue to pursue all measures to hold bad actors accountable.”

5. Today’s football news

Carolina Panthers starting left guard Pat Elflein is expected to go on the team’s short-term injured reserve with a hamstring injury, the Observer’s Jonathan M. Alexander reports. Learn more here.

Plus, Talking Preps returns tonight at 8 p.m. with some exciting topics, like a Mr. Football update, details on 5 new teams in NC rankings, and a Chambers-Hough preview. Learn more here with the Observer’s Langston Wertz Jr. and get ready to watch tonight’s episode.

Find all of our sports reporting here.

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This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 4:04 PM.