Group leader in charge of Baymont Inn calls recent deaths ‘preventable’

CHARLOTTE — The man in charge of the group now overseeing the Baymont Inn calls the recent deaths at the motel “preventable.”

Community activist Cedric Dean of Heal Empower Love Protect (HELP) is now leasing the motel after Heal Charlotte’s lease with Baymont Inn’s owner expired. The two groups are not connected.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department launched a death investigation last Friday after 36-year-old Shannon Solomon and a 1-year-old boy were found dead in a Baymont Inn room.

Dean said the deaths could have been avoided.

“I’m totally devastated because it was a preventable death,” he said.

Dean claims the two people who died were part of a program by Heal Charlotte. Heal Charlotte’s year-long lease expired in early April.

The city of Charlotte provided Heal Charlotte with $2.25 million from COVID funds in order to get the motel site running. The funding paid for the lease and supported program services.

The city said this allowed 60 of the rooms to be converted to emergency housing.

Heal Charlotte said that when the lease expired, all oversight and operations transitioned back to the property owners, who are now working with Dean’s unrelated group.

“At the conclusion of our contract, Heal Charlotte fulfilled every obligation, vacated the premises, removed all signage, and ended all engagement with the Baymont Inn,” a statement from Heal Charlotte said.

Dean said that since city funding helped move people in, the city should have helped move people out.

“I truly feel that the city of Charlotte needs to be held accountable, because even if Heal Charlotte vacated the premises and left it, the city of Charlotte had an obligation,” Dean said.

The 1 and 36-year-olds were discovered after a wellness check by John Stover. Despite the lack of city support, he said they are going to do all they can to help people at the site.

“We had to take a crowbar and a flathead screwdriver, and we had to break the handle off with a sledgehammer,” he said. “We still are going to provide that helping hand.”

According to an email sent to Charlotte City Councilmembers, the city did not designate the Baymont as an official mass displacement event, meaning that the city and Crisis Assistance did not directly coordinate the relocation efforts. Charlotte City Councilmembers were told that Heal Charlotte managed the relocation of the families served by its program, but throughout that process, city resources were accessed in support.

Heal Charlotte declined further comment.

VIDEO: Woman, child found dead in north Charlotte hotel, police say

Woman, child found dead in north Charlotte hotel, police say

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