CHARLOTTE — Charlotte-Mecklenburg police identified the man accused of fatally shooting Jahday Humphrey Thursday outside Latta Arcade on Brevard Court, where business owners say violent crime has gotten out of control.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department investigators said an argument between Humphrey and Jarius Jackson led to the gunfire.
A nearby business owner shared his safety concerns with Channel 9 the day after the violence.
The owner of Valhalla Pub & Eatery said he was mugged not far from the pub and said CMPD must do more to protect people.
There has been a lot of violence in the area and business owners said they have had enough of it.
Kristian Pedersen has owned Valhalla in Charlotte’s popular Brevard Court for 14 years.
“I’ve been in this courtyard since 2009,” Pederson said. “That’s when I opened Hooligan’s, and it was safe. This year, not at all.”
Thursday’s mid-day homicide happened yards away from his business.
Pederson’s frustration showed the day after when Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz spoke with him.
“This could have been avoided yesterday if somebody was here,” he said.
He’s wants more CMPD officers walking and biking in the area. Sáenz saw some on Friday.
Pedersen shared his story of being targeted by Uptown violence.
He was mugged on the other side of Romare Bearden Park a few weeks ago.
“Punched me in the face about 100 times,” he said.
He said a few juveniles were arrested but they were let out hours later.
“It’s a mayor’s problem,” Pedersen said. “It’s a city manager problem. It’s a police department problem. We need a fix. We need it now.”
Charlotte City Councilman Edwin Peacock agrees the city needs to do more.
“We have a problem,” Peacock said. “The first step is to admit we have a crime problem.”
He added, “If you lose the heart of our city, Uptown, it begins to choke out all the other arteries.”
Pederson agrees and is pleading with city leaders and the police department to help the business owners who make Uptown a prospering area.
“Help me out,” Pederson said. “You can give the (Bank of America Stadium) $650 million but you can’t help me with security? Are you kidding me?”
Channel 9 has heard from multiple business owners, and they said they’ve asked CMPD to help in the past with more routine patrols.
They said that hasn’t happened.
Channel 9 asked about that, but we have not heard back.
A special tax increase recently went into effect to help businesses hire security.
It was only a fraction of a cent per $100.
CMPD posted pictures of officers walking through nightlife areas with Center City Partners on Sept. 12.
The goal was to survey the patrol areas for lighting conditions and ask people their concerns.
WATCH: ‘Out of nowhere’: CMPD investigating deadly Uptown shooting in broad daylight
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
