‘Beyond unfair’: Father killed in ‘senseless’ shooting outside Gastonia home

GASTONIA, N.C. — Latoya Plant Carter looked at bullet holes in the place she and her family of four called home, reminded of her husband.

“It’s too much,” Carter told Channel 9’s Ken Lemon.

Their place on Hawkins Street in Gastonia doesn’t feel like home now. She was in her bed sleeping Saturday morning when everything changed and shots rang out.

“I have not been able to sleep in this house since it happened,” Carter said.

Someone fired at her husband, Jeffrey Carter, as he stood outside.

“I just woke up to gunshots and tried to run to the door, and as I ran to the door ... the bullet went over my head,” Carter said.

She said that bullet went past her and into a wall. At least one of those shots, however, hit her husband.

“When I stopped hearing shots, I came outside and he was on the ground,” Carter said.

Jeffrey died a month before his 40th birthday. The couple planned to celebrate his birthday and their daughter’s high school graduation on the same weekend.

“This is beyond unfair,” Carter told Lemon.

Carter’s family says the hard part is they have no idea what went wrong outside before the shooting.

“She would like justice, she would like some answers,” said Tatiana Cheeks, Carter’s cousin. “This was a senseless act, and we would like to know why.”

The Gastonia Police Department told Channel 9 on Monday that officers are investigating the shooting, but no suspects were identified. The department did say that no juveniles were involved in the shooting.

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