Police looking to holster recent trend of shootings

SHELBY, N.C. — A  Sunday morning shooting that left one man dead and two in jail on murder charges was the first of a string of gunshots heard around the city this week.

On Tuesday afternoon, police say, an officer was on Gardner Street investigating a car riddled with bullet holes when the officer saw a man nearby get shot in the leg.

On Wednesday, bullets struck three Shelby businesses.  No one was injured.

Although Shelby Police Chief Jeff Ledford said there is no evidence to tie the incidents to Sunday’s fatal shooting, it does show a trend of people relying on guns to solve disputes.

“That’s why we were out most of the night,” Ledford said Thursday. “We’re going to hit it head-on.”

Sunday shooting

Shortly after midnight Sunday, 22-year-old Devosia O’Neal Chatman died in a drive-by shooting at an East Dixon Boulevard intersection, police said.

After a private party held at AMVETS Post 42, where witnesses told police that fights and gunshots had erupted both inside and outside the club, Chatman had left and was a passenger in a Jeep Cherokee. Police said the Jeep was stopped at the intersection when a car drove up and someone inside opened fire, hitting Chatman. The driver took him to Cleveland Regional Medical Center where he died, according to police.

Less than 12 hours later, police arrested Aaron Jamal Smith, 22, and charged him with murder.

Carlos Sintel Surratt, 28, turned himself in to police Tuesday after learning he had warrants out for his arrest, police said. He has also been charged with murder in connection with Chatman’s death.

Both are being held at the Cleveland County Detention Center.

Tuesday shooting

A man was beaten and shot in front of police Tuesday while an officer was investigating an unrelated incident, according to police.

An officer had responded to a call on Gardner Street to investigate gunshot damage to a woman’s car, according to a Shelby Police Report,

The report stated that the woman had said she heard gunshots around 2 a.m. Sunday and when she checked her car, she found the window smashed out and what appeared to be bullet holes in the door and another window.

While the officer was checking the damage, he saw a group of people walking down Gardner Street toward a man sitting on a front porch, according to the report.

“I looked down into the door of the caller’s vehicle to find the round, (and) when I looked up, I observed the group of males….fighting the male subject that was sitting on the porch,” the report states.

The officer wrote that he saw the man fall, and the group of men started kicking him. One man picked up a chair and hit the fallen man with it, according to the report.

“At that time I was crossing Gardner Street and observed a subject…pull out what appeared to be a silver in color revolver,” the officer wrote in the report.

The man being beaten got up and ran into the house and the man with the gun fired at him, hitting him in the leg, according to police.

The officer drew his gun and told the group to get on the ground and drop their weapons, but the men ran away, the report states.

One man has been arrested in that shooting so far and has been charged with simple assault, Shelby Police Capt. Rick Stafford said.

Denzel Lamont Spikes, 19, of the 300 block of Buckles Avenue in Shelby, was charged with simple assault and is being held at the Cleveland County Detention Center under a $25,000 bond, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Additional charges could follow.

“…it started out from a hand-to-hand assault that led into shots being fired,” Stafford said. “The only thing we’ve been able to charge at this point is the assault. There was nobody there who was able to put the gun in anybody’s hands.”

He said the officer who witnessed the shooting said he saw a group of men walk up to one man and Spikes attacked him and started a fistfight that escalated to gunfire.

Wednesday shooting

Police say shots were fired into three city businesses, some of which had customers inside, around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

No one was injured, according to police reports.

Police said they were dispatched to Cricket Wireless on East Dixon Boulevard Wednesday afternoon after they were told shots had been fired into the store. The business is located near Shelby High School.

According to a report, officers spoke with the manager who said that a customer had been in the store about 15 minutes before shots had been fired.

According to police, a customer had left disgruntled after the manager had refused to replace a cellphone.

“…he would not replace (the customer’s) phone, that’s when (the customer) threatened to shoot him and shoot up his other store, M&M General Store located on Buffalo Street,” the report states.

Shortly afterward, someone came back and shot into the business around five times, according to the report.

There was damage to the front doors and walls and officers found a shell casing on the floor inside, the report stated.

HomeStar Mortgage Services, an adjoining business beside Cricket Wireless, had shattered glass and damaged walls from the gunshots, police said. According to the report, there were several customers inside the store at the time.

Less than half an hour later, police said, the owner of M&M General Store on Buffalo Street reported gunshots.

Around 4 p.m., the owner heard shots outside the store and when he stepped outside, he saw where a bullet had hit the cement wall of the business as well as the tire of his car, according to the report.

He told police he saw a car speeding away from the store but couldn’t see the driver, the report states.

‘The shooting is senseless’

Ledford said the uptick in violence has caused police to evaluate how to combat the issue.

He said there are several ways police plan to do this.

Community-oriented policing — in which officers spend time patrolling neighborhoods on foot or by bike — will be one method.

“We’ve got to get out in the neighborhoods and let folks know we’re working on this,” Ledford said. “We can’t get to know a neighborhood by riding through.”

The other way police will be fighting back against violence is by building strong cases, Ledford said.

“We’re going to find these people who commit these crimes, and we’re going to build good cases and we’re going to come after them,” Ledford said. “We’ve got to stop this. The shooting is senseless. We’ve got to let those criminals who use guns know that there’s a price.”

Ledford said Shelby police will also be working closely with the district attorney’s office, attorney general’s office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“We all have the same vision, which is to get this stopped,” he said.

WSOC