During the celebration of Juneteenth in Northwest Charlotte, gunshots were fired that resulted in two people dying and at least 12 hurt on early Monday.
What We Know:
- The shooting happened during a multi-day street party in northwest Charlotte at around 12:30 a.m. on the 1800 block of Beatties Ford Road. According to investigators, there were at least 400 people at the Juneteenth celebration and at least 100 rounds were fired into the crowd.
- Deputy Chief Gerald Smith has labeled it as a “mass casualty incident” and involved several weapons that were used on the crowd which indicates more than one person was shooting.
#Breaking After a mass casualty incident overnight on Beatties Ford Road, @cmpd is asking for witnesses to come forward and for any video to help in the homicide investigation. Turn to Channel 9 at noon @wsoctv pic.twitter.com/CBzDsM09mc
— Erica Bryant (@EricaWSOC9) June 22, 2020
- Keith Bailey, who served in the U.S. Army, told reporters how it sounded like it did in combat and how scary it was. “It was kind of like a little war. It sounded like it was when I was back in the service.”
- The police were called immediately and a short time later found a female victim with a gunshot wound and a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. The female victim was pronounced deceased on the scene.
- The multi-day “impromptu block party” started as a celebration for the events of June 19, 1865, when the last of the nation’s enslaved people had been set free by the Emancipation Proclamation.
- Since then, videos of the shooting had been posted on Twitter along with people stating that this was a planned attack due to the timing of the arrival of paramedics.
https://twitter.com/DreadzAndEyez/status/1274999519487328258?s=20
- According to prior homicides on the same avenue, it has been reported that at least 107 people were killed in Charlotte last year which was the “highest homicide toll” since 1993.
There are no updates on the deadly shooting that took the lives of two innocent bystanders and has five in critical condition. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are asking any witnesses to please come forward and call at 704-334-1600 with any information.
