Five killed in Charlotte weekend shootings, including 7-year-old boy

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are stepping up patrols around the city after a spike in violence over Labor Day weekend, including the shooting death of a 7-year-old boy at a birthday party Saturday evening.

At a news conference Sunday morning, CMPD deputy chief Jeff Estes said 10 people have been shot over the weekend so far, including five fatally. He said he couldn’t think of a similar rash of violence in recent memory.

The department is calling in officers from their regular days off and from vacation in order to step up patrols in all divisions, Estes said. Officers in special units such as gangs and firearms are also being brought in.

Police will be targeting street-level violence and illegal firearms, especially high-powered, high-capacity rifles, Estes said. Police had indications that such firearms were used in shootings in Southwest Charlotte Saturday evening, he said.

“We are asking for the community’s help in solving these crimes and preventing them from happening for the rest of the weekend and here on out,” Estes said at police headquarters in uptown. “We think it’s an absolute tragedy in Charlotte- Mecklenburg seeing this type of violence.”

Police ask that anyone with information about the incidents to call 704-432-TIPS. The public can also call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or visit the Crime Stoppers mobile app website at http://charlottecrimestoppers.com/.

Birthday party shooting

Estes said police were in the early stages of investigating the shootings, which occurred at four different locations around Charlotte from Saturday morning to Sunday morning. Police are looking into any possible connections between the incidents, he said.

Among the homicides, police are investigating the fatal shooting of Kevin Antonio Calderon Rodas, 7, at a birthday party at a home on Fieldvale Place in Southwest Charlotte Saturday evening.

Two other adult victims and a second juvenile victim were at the scene suffering from non-life threatening injuries and were treated by Medic, police said. On Sunday morning, a shattered car window and candy from a piñata were visible outside the home on Fieldvale Place where the shooting occurred.

“It’s a sad state of affairs in this city and our country when a 7-year-old boy can’t be free to celebrate at a birthday party without being murdered,” Estes said.

“If you know something about this crime and you don’t say something, we ask you to clear your conscience and let us know what you know so there will be no more senseless loss of life,” he said.

While investigating that crime, police heard shots nearby and responded to the 500 block of Echodale Drive, where they found two adults who had been shot. An unidentified woman was pronounced dead at Carolinas Medical Center. A unidentified man suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Officers at that scene were “absolutely heroic,” Estes said.

After reports of a person with a high-powered rifle in the area, police “got out on foot and walked shoulder-to-shoulder down the streets to make sure there was no further violence,” he said.

Two more shootings

Here are details on the two other shootings:

▪ At 4:44 a.m. Saturday police received a call that a man with a gunshot wound had been dropped off at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center. James Taylor, 23, was later pronounced dead.

The 911 caller indicated that the shooting occurred near the 1800 block of N. Hoskins Road in Northwest Charlotte, police said. When they located the original crime scene later that morning, police found Dominique Wheeler, 25, dead of a gunshot wound.

▪ On Sunday morning, police responded to a call from the 1100 block of Glenfiddich Drive in East Charlotte where they found an unidentified man dead from an apparent gunshot wound.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg has joined other areas around the country in reporting a sharp rise in homicides in 2015. As of Tuesday, police had investigated 37 homicides, a 42 percent jump from this time in 2014, when officers had investigated 26.

Last year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police investigated 42 homicides, the lowest total since police began keeping track of uniform crime statistics in 1977. More than 30 cities have also reported increases in violence from a year ago, the New York Times reported last week.

This story was originally published September 6, 2015 at 4:13 PM.