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Police: Man Killed In West Charlotte; 2 People Found Dead Off Greenway

CMPD vehicle
NICK DE LA CANAL
/
WFAE

Police say a 22-year-old man was shot and killed Wednesday night in northwest Charlotte.

Rodarius Meaders died inside an apartment in the 1200 block of Saratoga Drive, near the Freedom Drive-Interstate 85 interchange, just after 9:30 p.m., according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. So far, no information about what led to the killing has been released.

Separately, two people were found dead in a creek in southeast Charlotte on Wednesday evening. Just before 5:45 p.m., someone called 911 about a woman lying in the creek bed near the McAlpine Creek Park and Greenway off Monroe Road.

When Charlotte-Mecklenburg police got there, they discovered the woman was dead, and they found another person's body about 200 yards upstream.

As of 7:30 a.m., CMPD had not identified the two people or said how they died. The department did not say if officers suspect foul play.

Meaders' death is the 16th homicide reported in Charlotte this year and the fifth in less than a week.

Fifty-five-year-old Van Thien Huynh was found shot to death in a creek off Sardis Road North on Sunday, the same day 47-year-old Reyno Melgar was shot to death at an apartment complex in east Charlotte. Sunday also saw the death of 25-year-old Demarcus Mack, who'd been shot the day before near Brookshire Boulevard. And on Friday, 31-year-old Nathaniel Newberry was shot to death in front of a home in North Charlotte.

Arrests have been made in three of those cases this past week.

Last year, Charlotte had 107 homicides – the highest number since 1993 when the city was about half as populous — and an overall 11.5% increase in violent crime. For comparison, by this point in 2019, there had been 20 homicides.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are asking anyone with information on the cases to call 704-432-8477. 

Dash joined WFAE as a digital editor for news and engagement in 2019. Before that, he was a reporter for the Savannah Morning News in Georgia, where he covered public safety and the military, among other topics. He also covered county government in Gaston County, North Carolina, for its local newspaper, the Gazette.