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‘I couldn't believe it first': Mother devastated after son shot, killed in east Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The family of 19-year-old Deontray Love is speaking out after he was shot and killed Saturday night in Charlotte.

He was turning 20 years old the next day.

"Today he would have been 20 years old and now he's in a morgue on his birthday," said Latasha Love, Deontray's mother.

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Love said her son enjoyed hanging out with his siblings and listening to music. He graduated from West Charlotte High School last spring.

"I was so happy that day. I said, ‘Oh gosh, you finally made it,’" said Love.

(Deontray

Love)

Love said she was in a Food Lion parking lot when her ex-husband told her on the phone her son was killed.

"I couldn't believe it at first. I just fell down to the ground. People were trying to help me in the Food Lion parking lot," she said.

Police say Deontray was involved in an argument at a convenience store near Idlewild Road. The confrontation continued down Snow Lane where Deontray ​​​​​​​was shot. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died.

"We got to the hospital, and they wouldn't even let us see him. I said, ‘My son's dying back there, and I can't even see my own son,’" she said. "He got his wings. He got his wings. He gone, but he never be forgotten. He'll always be my son."

Police arrested 45-year-old Damion Baxter and charged him in connection to Deontray's murder.

“It's just another tragedy where a simple fight, what sounds like a simple fight, has turned into a death and now we have someone who is deceased and someone who is going to be charged with murder,” CMPD Maj. Mike Campagna said.

This was the city’s 84th homicide of 2019.

No further information has been released.

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