Two Charlotte men were killed in an overnight shooting in Charlotte’s University City area, police say.
The shooting happened shortly before 1 a.m. at a townhouse in the 1700 block of Forest Side Lane, off Back Creek Church Road a short distance from University City Boulevard.
A spokeswoman for UNC Charlotte said the victims were not students at the school.
Investigators say four people -- three men and a woman -- were at the residence when two other men arrived. Police say the occupants knew the two men who had arrived, and they let them inside. A short time later, shots were fired.
Jonathan Michael Green
The victims were identified as Jonathan Michael Green, 28; and Steffon Quinton Montgomery, 24. Montgomery lived at the townhouse, according to records. He had no record of serious crimes. Green lived elsewhere in Charlotte and had been arrested at least twice on drug-related charges.
“This was not random violence,” one detective at the scene said Friday morning.
Cedar's Take: "Not an act of random violence" is something we hear over and over again. This is CMPD's way of saying "don't worry this sort of thing only happens in the hood and at the Flying Biscuit and just down the street from the Caribou Coffee near Carmel Road".
We know what they are trying to say, "it was gang, or drug dealer related so don't worry about it", these people knew each other so it is more acceptable.
Good so it wasn't a "random act of violence", unless you happen to be one of the 2 guys dead in the UNCC area apartment. I'm pretty sure they didn't expect to die, and as far as they were concerned it was pretty random bad luck they took two in the chest.
In 1998 the Chicago Tribune published this account of a crime:
Police said a report of a home invasion Tuesday in the 200 block of North Ash Avenue was "not an act of random violence". A 28-year-old woman told detectives that three men entered her house and ransacked several rooms before sexually assaulting her, police said. The incident was reported to police after 11 p.m., according to detectives, who said the intruders had direct or indirect knowledge of the house.
So a decade ago Chicago Police were using this "tag" line, in this case because "the intruders had direct or indirect knowledge of the house".
Let's face it just because Green has some prior drug arrests doesn't make it acceptable that he was gunned down. Montgomery for all we know just had a pretty bad run of random luck.
Sure we can discount the black on black murders because all the brothers know each other, and the drug dealer vs drug dealer murders as well. We might as well discount the domestic homicides, since they too are "not random acts of violence".
On the other hand we could say ENOUGH of this stupid sound bite that is over used and misapplied continuously.
14 comments:
Please send this to Drudge report, Reason Magazine, Washinton Post, New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc... until someone starts telling truth.
CHARLOTTE'S MURDER RATE DOUBLES, BUT POLICE SAY IT'S NOT RANDOM
Maybe someone locally will start taking action for the lies they keep telling.
Wake up DA, SBI, FBI. It wouldn't even take a deep investigation to hit paydirt.
p.s. to Cedar, before you send: minor typo "were" not "we". Understandable in a great and exacting article. How many more excuses will they make?
If you put out a list of email addresses, I would join in sending to the the news outlets with requests to reprint and investigate.
And the way that CMPD does the math to report the fake numbers. They will only count this as ONE HOMICIDE.
Anyone know what community this was and who the reporting officers were?
For a long time, I have wondered if there was more going on in University than just manipulating crime numbers.
You are right Cedar. I'm going to stop using that phrase in my blogging. CMPD does use that catch phrase in nearly every press release they send. Great post- you opened my eyes!
I was a friend of both Jonathan and Steffon, I've been a good friend of Steffon for 5 years and he's ALWAYS had an awesome head on his shoulders .. Graduated highschool, straight to college, graduated then moved to Charlotte where he worked at Food Lion and pursued his music which he was amazingly talented in, words can't describe it and I'm honored to say he was a mentor for my music and was able to do a song with him before his untimely passing, Steffon always talked about going into the catering business also. He was always about business the right way. Jonathan had his run ins with the law but he too was such a sweet guy. These two were down to earth, humble, caring men and this is so heart breaking to me and so many people.
The latest homicide count as reported by the mainstream news is 12 (or 13) now if you count this latest one in University City. If you go to the Crime in Charlotte blog, ypu will see a different number ( it is 16). She had her number correct. CMPD is treating homicides like they treat auto thefts, break in, etc, etc... One report for multiple victims. While it may be easier to hide with less sensational crimes, how come the true number of homicide (victims) is not being reported. This should be an easy on to call the chief on!! Twelve homicides!!! My ass!!! Maybe twelve homicide scenes but there has been a few multiple homicides this year, including this latest one
Same thing with shooting into an occupied dwelling and five people are in the building,UCR requires that each victim in the building be counted as an offense but CMPD lists it on their stats as just one offense,
Storage buildings are counted the same way, bundled.
The ONLY crime that it is authorzed by UCR guidelines to do this is larceny from auto.....but ONLY if the vehicles are in close proximity to one another.
Imagine what the crime stats would look like if these guidelines were followed?
And if reports were actually taken.
Imagine what it would be like if someone of clout in this city,state or country gave a crap about the corruption that is taking place in Charlotte. I guess that will have to wait until after the elections this fall!!
Anon 04/28/12 @ 4:31 p.m.
CMPD is writing their own rules as to how they would like to report crime. If they were to read the reporting procedures again, then they would be reporting crime properly. You have said it correctly as to how they should be reporting the crime.
Basically, it is more of Chief Monroe's and the rest of his chicken shit staff in the reporting procedures. It makes me wonder if they are even reporting this to the FBI.
The State DOJ and the FBI have been informed in writing, along with the City Council, Walton, and of course CMPD themselves of the wrong way they are reporting the numbers & the absolute fact they have refused to follow state public records law to release requested data (as if they didn't know).
There is no excuse to anyone involved that they didn't know.
They can't say they didn't know, so I would want to be the first person in line to start fixing the problems, firing the biggest offenders, and cleaning up the system. Maybe a couple of the new City Council members should get in a room and review it.
All of this is probably the real reason for the 23% "increase" in violent crime... they are under pressure to report more closely to accurate numbers. Still not there, but having a harder time hiding it.
So he CAN "hide the bodies" as he so infamously said he coudn't do.
What a total scam he has been running on CMPD and Charlotte since the day he arrived.
Per WFAE story....maybe Captain Henson should work on cleaning his own house.
And isn't that contradiction in terms "CMPD House Cleaning"?
Someone needs to clean CMPD's house, starting from the very top down.
he didn't even choke when he said they were trying to clean up someone else's place.
is there video of the whole press conference somewhere--or who has the most shown?
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