CHARLOTTE — Police have arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with a deadly shooting near a grocery store in University City.
Joseph Lewis Sings Jr. was arrested Wednesday in Gaston County and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Jacori Mitchell.
The shooting happened early Sunday, Sept. 13, near an Aldi grocery store on N. Tryon Street. Officers responding to a call around 3:20 a.m. found Mitchell lying unresponsive on the sidewalk between the grocery store and a Cook Out restaurant with a gunshot wound to his back. First responders performed life-saving measures, but Mitchell was pronounced dead at 3:30 a.m.
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Investigators reviewed Real Time Crime Center surveillance footage from the area, which captured a black Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck stopping at the intersection of North Tryon Street and the Aldi entrance. According to an affidavit obtained by Channel 9, video recorded muzzle flashes coming from the driver’s side of the vehicle toward the area where Mitchell was located.
Surveillance video from Aldi showed Mitchell running from North Tryon Street after being shot before falling on the sidewalk.
Video also captured a female witness walking on the opposite side of the store who had been walking behind Mitchell when the shooting occurred. Detectives interviewed the witness, who said she was at an apartment on Kittansett Drive during an earlier shooting that occurred about 0.2 miles away. The witness told detectives she fled the apartment on foot with Mitchell’s three children toward North Tryon Street. While walking behind Mitchell near the grocery store, she saw a man pull up in a black Dodge Ram pickup truck, stop in the roadway and fire multiple rounds at Mitchell. Detectives later identified the suspect as Sings.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Team found Sings in Gaston County and took him into custody without incident.