CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Under the steady hum of life along Beatties Ford Road, residents could hear the troubling echoes of violence of the last two weekends.
“I wake up every morning and I just look and say 'another one gone.' I mean, it's just stupid,” said David Craft, who works at tire shop on Beatties Ford.
He said what many may be thinking after six murders in 10 days brought the city’s total for the year to 43 -- one more than all of 2014.
Read our past coverage:
- CMPD Chief: 'Gang-like behavior' behind weekend violence
- Two men accused in NC Music Factory shooting appear in court
- CMPD: 7-year-old boy shot dead, 3 others shot including another child
- 1 dead after second shooting near where child was killed, police say
- Man shot, killed early Sunday in east Charlotte, CMPD says
- CMPD: 2 shot dead after dispute in northwest Charlotte
- Man shot during robbery runs to movie theater, police say
- Man shot in leg in SW Charlotte is weekend's 12th shooting victim
The shootout at a local music studio over the weekend that left five people injured has some wondering if the sudden burst of violence is just the beginning.
“I know enough to know that this is just a blip on the screen,” said City Councilman David Howard, who remembers a time in the early 1990s when Charlotte’s murder total reached more than 120.
It was the impetus he needed to help start Mothers of Murdered Offspring, a grassroots group that still holds vigils after murders.
Howard said it will take the same approach now to change the trend toward violence.
“I had these conversations with students just last Thursday at one of the local high schools,” said Gary McFadden, a retired Charlotte-Mecklenburg homicide detective who is now a liaison between police and the community.
McFadden said it will take more than police to reverse the recent violent trend.
“We can only fix it if the community helps us fix it,” McFadden said. “We can take away some of the things and have true seminars to talk about what it is for these families to bury teenagers over this weekend.”
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