CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is investigating three homicides in three different shootings in Charlotte within 24 hours.
CMPD responded to the Druid Hills area on Saturday, Nov. 27, for a shooting that left a teenage girl dead at a home in the Druid Hills area.
Around 1:30 p.m., officers responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call along Olando Street near Norris Avenue.
Officers said they found 14-year-old Vanessa Sarai Santos Garcia with an apparent gunshot wound inside the home. MEDIC pronounced the victim dead a the scene, according to police.
CMPD officers identified 18-year-old Junio Alexis Ramos Estrada as a suspect in connection to the shooting.
Police arrested and charged the suspect with involuntary manslaughter, statutory rape of a person who is 13, 14, or 15-years-old by a defendant who is more than four but less than six years older than the victim, and possession of a stolen firearm. He is expected in court on Tuesday, Nov. 30.
CMPD said the suspect is in the custody of the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office. This homicide investigation remains ongoing.
On Saturday evening, hours later, officers responded to a domestic violence call on Sadler Road near Dixie River Drive. Police say they found 58-year-old Samuel Gregory shot to death. While lifesaving efforts were attempted, Medic pronounced Gregory dead at the scene.
The third shooting this weekend in Charlotte happened on Harland Street early Sunday morning. Just before 5 a.m., officers responded to a noise complaint along Harland Street near Pleasant Grove Road.
Police said they found a victim with a gunshot inside of a house. Authorities identified the victim as 34-year-old Sir Marquise Battle.
Neighbors told WCNC that at the time of the shooting there was a house party happening.
“You could hear everybody yelling and screaming," one neighbor, who didn't want to be named, said. "People yelling and screaming.”
The shootings are alarming activists like Greg Jackson, who founded Heal Charlotte and the Stop the Violence movement.
“It’s not something that Charlotte wants to market that we have a gun violence problem or that we have a gang problem, but we do," Jackson said. "It’s in existence and we need to start approaching it like it does exist and it’s hurting our communities.”
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call 704-432-TIPS and speak directly to a Homicide Unit detective.