Updated 5:30 p.m.
Police say two men were killed in shootings just hours apart late Monday and early Tuesday. Their deaths mark a grim milestone for the city: 100 homicides since the start of the year.
Nathaniel Lee Isenhour, 19, was shot just before 10 p.m. Monday in the 8640 University City Boulevard, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. When officers got to the scene, they found evidence of a shooting but no victim. Isenhour soon showed up at Atrium Health's University City hospital with a gunshot wound and was transferred to Carolinas Medical Center.
He died early Tuesday. According to local reports, Isenhour was the son of a Cabarrus County sheriff's deputy. The shooting happened at a busy shopping center that includes a grocery store and restaurants.
No information about who took Isenhour to the hospital or what led to the shooting had been released as of Tuesday afternoon.
In the second case, early Tuesday, police said 51-year-old Askia Toure Abdullah Alkebulan, an employee at an east Charlotte business was shot and killed.
Officers were called about 5:40 a.m. to La Casa at 5820 East W.T. Harris Boulevard, just past the intersection with North Sharon Amity Road, and found Alkebulan, who'd been shot. He was taken to a hospital but died.
As of 5 p.m., police hadn't released any information about what led to the shooting.
WSOC-TV reports the Alkebulan was a security guard at the business.
The deaths mark the 99th and 100th homicides reported by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police this year. There have also been several other killings deemed justifiable. Fifty-one slayings had been reported this time last year.
Charlotte hasn't seen this many homicides since 1993, when there were 129. That was Charlotte's deadliest year, but, for context, the city's population was much smaller then — about 450,000 compared to about 870,000 today.
When CMPD released its third-quarter crime statistics last month, they showed violent crime was up 11% from the same period in 2018.
Just Monday, Police Chief Kerr Putney addressed the rise in homicides.
"Our arrests in repeat violent offenders is up by 18%," Putney told WFAE. "Our gun seizures are up as well, over 5% more guns taken off the street, illegal guns, than last year. Our officers are also engaging our community in deeper levels and building those deeper relationships."
CMPD is asking anyone with information on these or any homicides to call 704-432-8477.
