3 Hours 3 Murders "Hat-Trick" Saturday

It took CMPD's PIO a while, (apparently over whelmed), but three people are dead and two others injured after multiple shootings early Saturday morning.

The first happened just after 1 a.m. in the 6900 block of Northlake Mall Drive. 

Armani Donovick Spencer Age 24 Photo MCSO

Officers received a call for an assault with a deadly weapon and when they arrived, they found three people had been shot. Of them, 24-year-old Armani Donovick Spencer was pronounced dead at the scene and two others were taken to Atrium hospital. 

About forty five minutes later, another shooting call came in from the 1700 block of Sumter Avenue near Johnson C. Smith and Uptown where Officers found 27-year-old Catoine Funderburk dead from a gunshot wound.

Catoine Tyrike Funderburk Age 27 Photo MCSO

Then at 2 a.m., police responded to a vehicle accident in the 7700 block of South Tryon Street which is just south of Arrowood near 485, where they found 22-year-old Jamir Rucks suffering from a gunshot wound. Rucks was transported to the hospital and died from his injuries just after 7 a.m.

Jamir Quincy Rucks Age 22 Photo Social Media

Three murders 75,76 and number 77 in less than 3 hours and Charloot nails the fifth hat trick of the year. 

And Charlotte leaders are once again silent. 

Behind the scenes they remind each other Charlotte is a big city and that our murder rate is lower than Greensboro's and total number of murders is far less than Chicago's or Baltimore's. 

To the mayor and many of Charlotte City Council members this hood violence is normal. Black on Black crime is just part of the African American experience whether its Compton or Patterson in New Jersey or West Baltimore.

They believe that having areas of Charlotte like Lincoln Heights, Tryon Hills, and Oaklawn which account for 8% of all violent crime in Charlotte is acceptable. They dismiss common issues like gang violence, prostitution, gun violence, aggravated assault, drug offenses, and armed robbery as "normal".

Yet in less than three hours North, Central and Steele Creek Divisions had homicides. How is this acceptable? Violence in Charlotte is not constrained to a couple of "bad hoods" rather it is not happening in a small fraction of the city, a wedge of prosperity that every year shrinks in size.

What once was South Tryon to Central, became I-77 to Indy and today is Park Road to Old Monroe. The wedge of prosperity is shrinking and may soon simply become only pockets behind gated walls.

Happy Hat Trick!