Charlotte police officers had their hands full early this morning as dozens of African American thugs described as "several groups of people" by CMPD, confronted each other on the streets of "Uptown" Charlotte shortly after the Speed Street event had closed for the evening. The violence continued off and on for over two hours and ended in a homicide.
Nearly an hour after the official end of Speed Street events and long after most NASCAR fans had gone home, the groups began fighting during what some have described as "near riot" conditions in the post Speed Street hours.
According to CMPD the groups where not partaking in the Speed Street events but apparently came uptown to create general mayhem. The groups were seen roaming the area that included the Speed Street venue and the transit center.
"Officers noted people flashing gang signs, challenging other people as well as police officers, attempting to block sidewalks, and impeding vehicle traffic."
The mayhem reached a dramatic crescendo when CMPD officers heard several gunshots, and responded to the 200 block of 3rd Street to discover one person dead and another shot.
According to the CMPD press release, two groups became involved in one of many continuing altercations when a someone in the group pulled a handgun and fired at random, striking a man once in the head. He died at the scene.
The mob moved further down Collage street where a second person was shot in the lower leg. He was later transported in handcuffs to Carolinas Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
CMPD helicopter and K-9 units were called in but were unable to locate the shooting suspect.
The Speed Street event has been staffed with officers from CMPD's Central Division as well as paid off duty CMPD officers. As the conditions deteriorated additional CMPD resources, including CMPD's Civil Energency Unit aka riot police were called in to control the gangs.
A department email released at 3:18 this morning stated that "Approximately 70 arrests were made, including nearly 15 juvenile arrests. The majority of the arrests were made for disorderly conduct, fighting, assault and impeding traffic.
Cedar Posts Update: 11:00 AM After staying quiet most of the morning the "Local Paper" has now weighed in as have WBT and WSOC.
If you think Uptown is the place you want to be after dark this video might change your mind. The video is here. I'm not sure of the source but it appears to be from a CMPD camera taken with a cell phone video camera.
Note: The video linked above is not from last night's madness but from April. Though I expect the idea is much the same.
Cedar Posts Update: 4:23 PM CMPD has identified the deceased victim as Antwan Terrell Smith DOB 8/23/1988. Smith had priors for sexual assault, ADW, resiting arrest, assault on a female. He was last arrested in June of last year.
Antwan Terrell Smith
The second shooting victim has been identified at Durante Kavon James DOB 03/16/1989. James has a long arrest record dating back to at least 2008. Crimes included armed robbery, drug charges, trespassing, resisting a public officer. James is expected to recover from his injuries. No word on pending charges.
Durante Kavon James
