Three dead in a hail of gunfire.

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Charlotte Observer Logo3 dead, 11 hurt after over 100 shots fired at big crowd at outdoor Charlotte party | Charlotte Observer
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3 dead, 11 hurt after over 100 shots fired at big crowd at outdoor Charlotte party
BY MARK PRICE AND LAUREL DEPPEN
JUNE 22, 2020 05:53 AM , UPDATED JUNE 22, 2020 05:22 PM

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department investigate the aftermath of a shooting along Beatties Ford Road near Catherine Simmons Avenue during an impromptu street party on Sunday night. The incident left 3 dead and 11 injured. BY DAVID T. FOSTER III

Three people were killed and at least 11 hurt early Monday after a multi-day street party erupted in lots of gunfire in northwest Charlotte, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.

Five of the injured people were struck by cars as they began scrambling across streets away from the chaotic scene, police said. Three of the people who were injured are fighting for their lives, police said.

There have been no arrests, no suspects and no indication of a motive for the killings yet.

At a news conference Monday, investigators said that as many as 400 people were attending the celebration at the time, and at least 100 rounds were fired into the crowd. No CMPD officers fired their weapons, officials said.

The three people who died were identified by CMPD as Kelly Miller, 29, Christopher Antonio Gleaton, 28, and Jamaa Keon Cassell, 39.

“It was a very, very chaotic scene,” Deputy Chief Gerald Smith said at the news conference. “This was a mass casualty incident.”

He lamented that no witnesses had come forward yet, saying, “400 people in one spot, we have not one witness.” Smith said, and urged people to provide police with information about the shooting.

Keith Bailey told the Observer he was at his home a few blocks away when he heard bursts of gunfire.


“It was kind of like a little war,” said Bailey, who served in the U.S. Army from 1979 to 1984, and saw combat in Grenada.

“It sounded like it was when I was back in the service,” Bailey said. “When you hear gunfire like that, it’s kind of scary.”

Investigators say there is evidence “several different caliber weapons” were fired simultaneously, indicating more than one person was shooting. It was not clear who they were targeting or why they started shooting, Smith said.


Jennings described the outdoor event as a multi-day “impromptu block party” for Juneteenth that had been running off-and-on since Friday.

The official Juneteenth celebration included a March through the neighborhood Friday but continued in several unofficial celebrations throughout the weekend, Smith said.

Juneteenth celebrates the events of June 19, 1865, when the last of the nation’s enslaved people learned they had been set free by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Witnesses told WBTV the neighborhood’s Juneteenth affair had been “a happy, peaceful celebration” prior to the violence. Street racing and drivers “doing donuts in the road” had been part of the celebration, witnesses told the station.


A CHAOTIC SCENE
The incident began around 12:30 a.m. in the 1800 block of Beatties Ford Road, police said, near Catherine Simmons Avenue. The area runs parallel to Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Park.

Police were called to the area in connection with a pedestrian struck by a vehicle shortly after midnight, CMPD Deputy Chief Johnny Jennings told news outlets at the scene. As officers were responding, they heard gunshots, police said.

Soon after, police said, they found a woman with a gunshot wound lying on Beatties Ford Road. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene by Medic, CMPD said.


Five people showed up at local hospitals and said they had been struck by vehicles, CMPD said. Police believe one of those people was the original victim that officers were responding to, and the other four were also struck by fleeing vehicles.