5 killed in separate Charlotte shootings over the weekend

CHARLOTTE — Five people were killed, and several others were hurt in a violent weekend across the Queen City.

Police are still searching for suspects. One shooting claimed the life of a 16-year-old.

That teen was killed during the hours of an upcoming teen curfew, but some people think the curfew wouldn’t have made a difference.

That teen curfew doesn’t go into effect until Nov. 1, but an activist doesn’t believe it would have stopped a teen from being shot and killed over the weekend as several families across the city begin to grieve.

Five people were shot and killed in separate shootings around Charlotte.

Community activist Jacqueline Lewis is disturbed, to say the least, especially knowing two 16-year-olds were shot on Ridge Creek Drive in Steele Creek.

One of them died, along with a 19-year-old.

It happened around 3 a.m. Sunday.

“The parents have to be responsible for their children, and if you allow your child to be out at that time of morning, in this society, how to do you let your children stay out that long?” Lewis said.

“He loved his girls. He loved everybody around him,” said Kirsten Sorensen, a victim’s friend.

Sorensen is mourning her best friend, Zachary Howie, a 35-year-old who police say was shot and killed Saturday morning on High Meadows Lane off Archdale Drive.

Sorensen is left with so many unanswered questions.

“That was my right-hand man. Like that was my brother. I could count on him,” Sorenson said.

A weekend full of violence came with a renewed call for everyone to lower the temperature.

“Sometimes it’s better to walk away,” Lewis said. “I was told when you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything; you walk away.”

Police have made an arrest in only one of the five deadly shootings from the weekend.

Detectives are working to make arrests in the other cases, too.

Police say Andrea Cole admitted to shooting and killing Thomas McDonald inside a home on Altliff Court in northeast Charlotte.

Police say this was a case of domestic violence.

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