Children Witness Deadly Shooting Near School

Students placed flowers Wednesday night at a makeshift memorial to the person who was shot to death Wednesday afternoon just a few feet from a recreation center and only a block away from West Charlotte High School.

Children gathered to watch a fight which broke out among teenagers outside the West Charlotte Recreation Center on Senior Drive.

That's when someone fired a gun.

One person was shot once and later died.

Police said the victim was not a student at the school.

Sergeant Edwin Carlton said investigators are running down several leads including whether the victim or the suspect had a criminal history.

Police had not identified the victim or the suspect late Wednesday night.

Darnise Starr picked up her daughter at West Charlotte High School just after the shooting.

"You don't want to put your child in a situation that's dangerous but you can't protect them from every environment," said Starr. "But if you know that things like this happen and they do, you try to grab control.

Starr said the shooting should be a lesson to parents.

"I think at some point we as parents have to step up and we have to start changing things," said Starr. "We have to make sure we're raising our children. We have to know where they are, what they're doing. We have to be nosy! We have to be in their business."