CHARLOTTE — Two people were killed in north Charlotte this weekend within 24 hours of each other, police said. The incidents happened only 500 feet apart, just south of University City.
A police report shows the first happened when a man was shot on Tom Hunter Road Saturday night. He was taken to the hospital where he later died. The second: Someone was stabbed on North Tryon Street Sunday and rushed to the hospital, where they died Monday morning.
On Monday, Channel 9′s Evan Donovan visited the site of a small memorial that started to form in the woods between where the two homicides happened.
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Hector Aguilar and his father have run a neighborhood grocery store for more than 20 years.
“My heart just dropped,” Aguilar said. “I don’t have any words, it just feels bad.”
He said the victim of the stabbing used to work for him.
“He was a pretty good employee. Real good,” Aguilar said. “When I call him, wake him up, say ‘I’m on my way to pick you up,’ he’ll be at the gas station waiting for me. He was always there 10 to 15 minutes early, before I get there. He’s a pretty good, pretty good guy.”
Police said the shooting Saturday happened in the woods behind Aguilar’s shop.
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The owner of Tacos Veloz told our colleagues at Telemundo Charlotte he has surveillance video of the stabbing, but could not release it to Channel 9 because it’s part of the investigation.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s crime mapping tool shows dozens of crimes in the area over the past six months, but only one other homicide before this weekend.
Still, Aguilar said he’s putting surveillance cameras up this week because of what happened.
Because the crime scenes are so close to each other and happened less than a day apart, Channel 9 has asked police if there is any reason to believe they are connected. So far, we have no heard back.
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