Man shot, killed in east Charlotte marks city's 56th homicide

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police are looking for the gunman who shot and killed a man outside his home in east Charlotte Thursday.

Officers were called to the McAden Park Apartments on Seigle Avenue around 4:48 p.m after neighbors reported hearing multiple gunshots.

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First responders found Jerome Oneil Blakely, 31, lying near an entryway with gunshot wounds.

IMAGES: Homicide investigation after east Charlotte shooting

Neighbors said Blakely lived at the apartment with his mother and kept to himself.

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"He was a quiet, cool guy," said a neighbor named Tiffany. "He didn't bother anybody. I would see him walking at times."

Another neighbor Channel 9 spoke with was much more shaken by the shooting.

She lived next door to the victim and said one of the bullets went through her 4-year-old daughter's bedroom, where the child was playing with a friend.

"I ran outside and banged on his door to tell his mother he had been shot," said the woman, who didn't want to be identified.

The woman was thankful the children weren’t hurt but became even more emotional when she learned her neighbor had died on the way to the hospital.

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This shooting marks the 56th homicide in Charlotte this year. It also comes just days after Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney asked the city for more resources in order to reduce violent crime, which has spiked more than 17 percent from last year.

CMPD last added officers in 2008, but since then Charlotte-Mecklenburg has grown by 120,000 people.

Neighbors said they hope change comes soon, especially now that the violence has crept into their development.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call 704-432-TIPS.

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