Child shot, killed in southwest Charlotte

CHARLOTTE — A 4-year-old boy died from a gunshot wound Wednesday morning in southwest Charlotte, according to MEDIC.

The incident happened around 6 a.m. on Cigar Court near Moss Road.

Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department say no one has been arrested.

One neighbor fought back tears as she recounted what happened.

“I said I’m fine,” she told Channel 9’s Eli Brand. “But there is a kid down the street, three houses over who’s not ok.”

She said she heard five to six shots Wednesday morning.

“You go to bed at night, and you’re just sleeping and may not wake up the next day,” another neighbor Brandon Flowers who lives next door to the victim said. “That’s a scary thought. In the sanctity of your own home, to have bullets flying at 6 in the morning and someone stealing a vehicle and then just decide to open fire on a house, it’s jarring.”

At the scene, Channel 9’s Eli Brand learned the incident started as someone was trying to steal a car.

Police say shots were intentionally fired into a home and hit the child.

There is no indication the people in the home posed any threat to person who fired shots.

“When you discharge a firearm, someone or something is going to stop those rounds,” Maj. Ryan Kendall with CMPD said. “When these rounds are negligently discharged like this, this is what happens. Someone or something gets hit. These rounds do not vaporize in thin air.”

Neighbors say whoever fired those shots took that stolen car and sped away as quickly as they could.

Police say it was a black Dodge Charger that was stolen.

The boy and his older brother moved to the townhome complex to live with their grandmother because their mother died from cancer, neighbors said.

As for the neighbors, and the victim’s family, much more was taken from them.

“I don’t understand crime, but if it’s two people going at it, you could probably see that,” a neighbor said. “But then an innocent baby in the bed where they’re supposed to be safe in the comfort of their home, that’s a heck of a lot worse.”

Later in the morning, there was a standoff at a home that is about 10 minutes away and Channel 9 is asking if that is connected with this crime.

Four people were arrested in that incident.

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