GASTONIA, N.C. — A violent November weekend in the Charlotte region is highlighting the issue of repeat criminal offenders being accused of committing more serious crimes.
Gastonia Police arrested 21-year-old Jordan Chambers after investigators said he shot and killed Avery Ponder on Sunday afternoon along Hudson Boulevard.
Court documents revealed Chambers was on probation for larceny in Cleveland County, but less than two weeks before the shooting, investigators said Chambers cut off his electronic monitoring device with a knife and evaded probation officers.
Gastonia Police Captain Trent Conard said electronic monitoring is just one tool and not a catch-all solution, particularly in Chambers' case.
"Whether the electronic monitoring device was on or whether it was off, I don't believe it had any bearing in the crime being committed," Capt. Conard said. "I believe it would've been committed regardless."
The same day, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said 23-year-old Corey Vega shot and killed a woman at a party in a northeast Charlotte business park.
Mecklenburg County Jail records showed Vega was released from jail less than three days before the shooting after being booked on charges of robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Mecklenburg County's electronic monitoring program has been controversial as an NBC Charlotte Defenders investigation discovered nearly one out of every four people wearing an ankle monitor is charged with a violent crime.
Vega won't be one of those people as jail records list him with no bond. Chambers remains in the Gaston County Jail under a half-million-dollar bond.
Gastonia Police said detectives plan to make additional arrests in Ponder's murder.