‘Just speak up’: Victim’s family hopeful for new leads 6 years after block party shooting

CHARLOTTE — These days, Zaria Beam and her sisters remember the good times and lots of special moments with their dad, Jamaa Cassell.

“He was more like a best friend, so we would talk all the time,” Beam told Channel 9’s Erica Bryant.

In 2020, Cassell’s seven children all gathered to celebrate him on Father’s Day, not knowing it would be the last time. The next day, a huge block party on Beatties Ford Road devolved into a mass shooting.

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Beam says she knew her dad was there; she had just talked to him. But then she tried to call him back.

“I knew when he didn’t answer that that was not normal, because he would always answer the phone no matter what time of night it was,” Beam said.

Jamaa was gone, killed along with three other victims: Christopher Gleaton, Kelly Miller, and Dairyon Stevenson.

Witnesses said dozens of shots started firing off, and it was tough to tell where they were coming from, while hundreds of people ran for safety.

Officer Patrick Moore was one of the first to arrive on the scene. Now, he’s the lead detective working to solve this case.

Video recorded the gunshots everywhere near the block party, from cell phones and surveillance cameras. But still, six years later, there have been no suspects and no arrests.

“One of the things that I really want to make clear is that this is not a cold case,” Moore told Bryant. “In fact, I didn an interview this week, generated some new leads that we’re following up on.”

Moore said in a crowd that large, it’s hard to tell what any one person is doing.

“Which is why I want to talk to the person who’s standing next to my shooters, however many there may be,” Moore said. " So they’re going to know people from before, it may be their friends, it may be their family."

Moore says he’d like to talk to every single person who was at the block party that night.

“They’re giving me their trust when they come forward and speak with me about what they saw. And I’m not going to put those people’s names out there, I just need the information,” Moore said.

It’s information that could mean some closure for grieving loved ones, like those who miss Jamaa.

“When he was here, he was the glue for everyone,” Beam told Bryant. “If you do know anything, you know, because even if it was like an accident or whatever; getting that off your conscience, even if you’re a God-fearing person, just let it be known.”

Beam is hoping that someone comes forward with an answer.

“Like, just speak up, it’s been a long time, so you should just speak up,” she said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $30,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case.

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