CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Housing Authority told Eyewitness News it is stepping up security after a brazen shooting at one of its properties.
Charlotte Mecklenburgpolice are searching for the second person responsible for a shooting at Dillehay Courts Apartment Complex in North Charlotte. The gunfire hit three people, including a teenaged girl.
"Bullets was flying, ricocheting everywhere," said victim Takiya McClain.
McClain, 22, walked away from the shooting with a broken shoulder and a bullet still lodged in her arm.
She was visiting her cousin at the apartment complex when two people got into an argument and started shooting into a neighborhood full of children. She said she's grateful to have walked away at all.
"I thank God every day," she said. "Who knows what could have happened?"
For years now, Allison Preston has been working to control what happens at Dillehay Courts and with some success. Just this year, the housing authority's resident safety department installed surveillance cameras at Dillehay Courts and at 12 other communities over the past year and a half.
He told Eyewitness News the cameras along with working together with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police to increase patrols has been very helpful. He said so far this quarter there has been a 33-percent decrease in crime.
He said if those charged with this latest crimes are residents at Dillehay Courts they would no longer be allowed to live there.
"We're going to meet with the residents to resolve this matter. To make sure this doesn't happen again involving the same people," he said.
Good news to McClain, who still can't believe what happened.
"It makes me mad because the situation could have been handled much differently," she said. "Whoever was beefing at the time could have just come together and talked about it."
Police arrested Onslow Black Wednesday night, charging him with multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Thursday they told Eyewitness News they had a second suspect that they were still searching for, but they hadn't released that person's name.