Innocent victims caught in middle of deadly Charlotte crime spree

CHARLOTTE — One person is dead after being shot, another is in critical condition, and a third victim is dealing with the trauma of escaping a kidnapping.

All three of them were innocent victims caught in the middle of a deadly crime spree Thursday in Charlotte.

The suspect was killed by police after he fired shots at officers.

Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz, Eli Brand, and Joe Bruno have been digging into what happened during the chaotic scene Thursday in west Charlotte.

Where it started: The wrong place at the wrong time

Sáenz and Brand went to Hoskins Road, near Brookshire Boulevard, on Friday. That’s where police were first alerted to a shooting around 4 p.m. Thursday.

On Friday, Sáenz spoke with Justin Carlton’s mother in a gutwrenching conversation. She said Justin was shot dead along Hoskins Road while on his way home from work.

Carlton’s mother said Justin didn’t know the suspect, and he was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carlton’s mother believes her son was shot in his car before the suspect, identified by police as 28-year-old Joseph Andrade, drove off in it.

“I hear one gunshot, then I paused my game and not even a second later, I hear three more,” said one witness who didn’t want to show their face.

Channel 9 learned that Andrade took Carlton’s Mini Cooper and crashed into another car head-on on Hoskins Road.

“I see the dude like run up the street, I make eye contact with him, he has the gun on the side of his hand,” the witness told Sáenz.

The witness told us that after the suspect crashed Carlton’s stolen car, the suspect then stole a white car. Minutes later, surveillance video obtained by Channel 9 shows the car out of control on the same street. That car then slammed into a construction site, and the suspect is seen jumping out and running onto the street.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says during this hectic scene, another victim was shot and taken to the hospital in critical condition. That victim hasn’t been identified. We don’t know what led to this shooting.

Ring doorbell video shows the armed suspect run off and take a right on N. Cloudman Street. That’s where police say the suspected murderer kidnapped an innocent woman.

Mother kidnapped from home

After crashing two cars, the suspect then broke into a woman’s home and forced her into her car.

Neighbors told us the kidnapping was random and happened in front of the victim’s young child.

The suspect drove away in the woman’s SUV as police started arriving at the shooting and crash scenes nearby.

The chase

CMPD told Channel 9 that they used the department’s Real Time Crime Center to keep track of the SUV. Channel 9 also tracked CMPD’s helicopter from the Hoskins Road area down Interstate 77 toward Uptown Charlotte through FlightRadar24.

Police spotted the car on the ground, and officers began pursuing the SUV near Freedom Drive W. Morehead Street. CMPD said Andrade was firing shots at patrol cars during the chase.

Just before 5 p.m., Chopper 9 SkyZoom flew over Morehead Street near Walnut Avenue and spotted the SUV at a standstill, and officers started putting up crime scene tape.

Channel 9’s Joe Bruno went to Morehead Street and talked to a witness who saw the ending to a harrowing chase.

Mayhem on Morehead

Video obtained by Charlittt and shared with Channel 9 shows the red SUV zooming past the intersection with CMPD in high pursuit. A block down the road, the chase came to an abrupt end near Pinky’s Westside Grill. Seconds later, you can hear multiple shots ring out in the intersection just outside of Uptown Charlotte.

The witness was standing on Morehead Street and panhandling when he found himself unexpectedly in the middle of it all.

“I was freaking out,” David Freeman told Bruno on Friday.

He saw the chase fly past him, and he says Andrade pulled a U-turn by the 7-Eleven before coming back his way. He says when the SUV got back to the intersection, Andrade was trapped in traffic.

“He just jumps out the car and starts shooting at police, and so they started shooting, they returned fire,” Freeman told Bruno.

Freeman says before those shots were fired, he saw the kidnapping victim jump out of the car and run in the other direction.

“She thought quick, she got out that car as soon as it stopped because the car was boxed in. He couldn’t go nowhere,” Freeman said.

Freeman says he and two other witnesses spent three hours at CMPD’s headquarters Thursday night to give statements. He’s thankful the kidnapping victim and all of the other CMPD officers are safe. He said he’s also glad he wasn’t struck by any of the bullets.

“I was moving too fast over here,” Freeman said.

CMPD added that the suspect also fired at patrol cars during the chase. The officers who fired their weapons will be placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

On Friday, we saw CMPD detectives return to the Hoskins Road area to check in on the kidnapping victim at her home.

Channel 9 spent Friday digging through court records trying to uncover details about the suspect, Joseph Andrade. We found two people with that name and age; they live in Florida and Georgia, and neither have a criminal record. We also didn’t find any records for Andrade in North Carolina.

We’re continuing to reach out to police to try and learn more about the motive for this crime spree.

(VIDEO >> CHOPPER 9: Driver crashes into ditch, tries to get into box truck after chase from Charlotte to SC)