CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An NBC Charlotte exclusive interview is shedding light on a brutal murder at a local gas station.
Officers say 32-year-old Andrew Allen was stabbed to death at the Shell station on South Boulevard. It happened just before 2 a.m. Police arrested 55-year-old Richard Grier and charged him with murder.
Now, the victim’s close friend is speaking out about a recent encounter he says he had with the same suspect. Charles Caldwell says he was attacked for being gay just two weeks before the murder.
That’s why he believes the murder was a hate crime.
Caldwell says he was devastated to learn his close friend was murdered.
“I just couldn't function, because I had just talked to him the night before,” Caldwell said. “I've known Andrew my whole life and I consider him a cousin, a brother.”
Caldwell says the same suspect attacked him two weeks earlier after calling him gay slurs.
“I couldn't even go to work because I had [a] black eye and busted lip and to hear you did this, I'm pretty sure it's a hate crime and you don't like gay people,” Caldwell said of the suspect.
Police have not charged Grier for the alleged assault that Caldwell describes.
At this point, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has not released a motive for the murder. According to the police report, the victim did not know the suspect.
“He (Andrew) never got in any fights or none of that,” said Caldwell.
Caldwell says Allen was a father who struggled financially but had just gotten a new job. He says that’s what they were talking about on the phone the night before he was murdered.
“We wanted to go do some shopping and stuff, he had just gotten paid and all that, just to celebrate him getting a new job,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell remembers a few words they exchanged, not knowing at the time it would be their last words.
“That, ‘I love you and I'll talk to you tomorrow’, and it never came, due to what happened to him,” Caldwell said.
CMPD told NBC Charlotte that homicide detectives would like to talk to Caldwell. NBC Charlotte let Caldwell know and he said he plans to call detectives.
CMPD is offering up to a $5,000 reward for information in the case.
Grier is being held in the Mecklenburg County jail without bond.