CMPD Responds to Uptown Riot

From The Public Affairs Office of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept.
Throughout the night, officers responded to several confrontations within the College and Trade Street area, unrelated to the Speed Street event which ended hours earlier at approximately 11:00 p.m., On Saturday, May 28, 2011.
Throughout the night, several groups of 50 or more people began confronting each other and refusing police commands to disperse. It is estimated that approximately 25,000 to 30,000 people were in a four block area of uptown, from the intersection of College Street and Trade Street. Additional groups also gathered around the Transit Center and were not partaking in any events associated with Speed Street.
Approximately 70 arrests were made, including nearly 15 juvenile arrests. The majority of the arrest were made for disorderly conduct, fighting, assault and impeding traffic.
Officers noted people flashing gang signs, challenging other people as well as police officers, attempting to block sidewalks, and impeding vehicle traffic. The center city was staffed with on duty officers from Central Division, and officers working in a secondary employment capacity for Speed Street. Based upon the disruptions, additional pre-staged Civil Emergency Unit officers were called in from surrounding divisions to assist in managing the crowds.

Robert P. Fey
Public Affairs Office
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police
601 East Trade Street
Charlotte, NC 28202

Families, Officials Pay Tribute to 36 Officers Killed in Line of Duty

By JEFF CAMPBELL / NewsChannel 36 via http://www.ten8.wordpress.com
http://www.wcnc.com/video/featured-videos/Officer-Memorial-121417394

CHARLOTTE – Police officers and their families gathered on Friday night for a yearly tribute to fallen officers that took on special significance this year.

Exactly 10 weeks to the day after Officer Fred Thornton lost his life, the Fraternal Order of Police held their yearly May tribute to the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

Officer Thornton was killed when a flash-bang device detonated as he was trying to render his SWAT gear safe. The detonation caused massive injuries that ultimately took Thornton’s life. He was a 28-year veteran with CMPD.

Friday night in Sharon Memorial Park, Thornton’s wife, Linda, was on hand to recognize her husband’s service, and to grieve with the families of other fallen officers.

“We owe you – the families and the officers – a great debt of gratitude for what it is that you give to us,” Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx said, expressing his sympathies to the families.

Mayor Foxx also read aloud the names of all 36 Mecklenburg County officers who have lost their lives dating back to the late 1800s – including CMPD officers, as well as Huntersville and Davidson Police, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI.
As each name was read aloud, one balloon was sent into the air for each of the officers.

“The candlelight vigil is a really special time,” said Trisha Norket, the mother of Officer John Burnette.

Burnette was killed on October 5th, 1993. He and fellow officer Andy Nobles spotted a stolen car in the Boulevard Homes neighborhood, and chased the driver into the woods. During a confrontation, the driver grabbed one of the officers’ weapons and killed them both. Burnette was just 25 years old.

And now, 17 years later, Norket told NewsChannel 36, “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about my son.”
“I don’t think about the bad things. I think about the good things. That is just the way we live our lives,” she said.

Electronic Monitoring Device Links Suspect to Charlotte, NC Crime Scene

By NewsChannel 36 Staff / http://www.wcnc.com via http://www.ten8.wordpress.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Detectives arrested a Charlotte man in connection with an armed robbery that occurred in the middle of the afternoon Thursday.

A man and his son told police they were in the parking lot of a W. Sugar Creek Road gas station around 2 p.m. when a man approached them, showed them a gun and demanded money. The victims gave him money and took note of the tag number of the car the suspect used to leave the gas station.

Police ran the tag number and it connected 24-year-old Cumar Howard to the car.

Howard heard police were looking for him and went to police headquarters to deny that he had been in the area. However, Howard was wearing an electronic monitoring device and officers used their tracking system to check on Howard’s whereabouts. The tracking system showed that Howard was at the scene at the time of the robbery.

He was taken into custody and charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon. This is Howard’s ninth arrest in Mecklenburg County since 2008.

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Electronic-monitoring-device-links-suspect-to-crime-scene-121410169.html

Suspect in 11:30 AM Robbery Arrested After Brief Standoff at Apartment Complex

By GLENN COUNTS / NewsChannel 36 via http://www.ten8.wordpress.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Plaza Terrance Apartments are normally quiet, but that was not the case on Friday afternoon as a police helicopter hovered overhead and officers surrounded the building.

“I saw the road was blocked off and that’s about all I saw,” said neighbor Joanne Cannon. “And the police officer told me I need to get inside of a building.”

Investigators say a man with a shotgun robbed Wireless Kingdom and Rap City Fashion on The Plaza around 11:30 a.m. Friday. The suspect was seen crossing the street with that shotgun shortly after the robberies.

“We were in the area,” said Capt. Demetria Faulkner-Welch. “We have officers assigned to the area, so officers were in the area when the call came out.”

Police got to the area so quickly that the suspect did not have time to get away, so instead he hid in one of the apartments. As the standoff progressed, elderly residents, like 71-year-old Margie Leach, were evacuated.

“They knocked on my door and told me to come out and stuff cause there was a guy he was armed and dangerous,” she said. Leach says when she found out what was going on, she decided officers were right.

The SWAT team joined the action and negotiators talked the suspect out of putting up a fight.

“There was some communication with him and then he ended up coming out,” said Faulkner-Welch.

Police have not yet released the name of the suspect. A school near the area, nearby school, Highland Mill Montessori, was placed on lockdown during the incident.

22 Year-Old Man Killed in “2 Vehicle Shootout” on Independence Blvd. Near Idlewild Rd.

By Meghan Cooke / Charlotte Observer of Thursday, May 05, 2011

A 22-year-old died Wednesday, police said, after he was wounded in the head during a shoot-out between men in two vehicles Sunday at a strip mall in east Charlotte.

The shooting happened around 2:30 a.m. Sunday in the parking lot of Independence Promenade, on Independence Boulevard near Idlewild Road. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police didn’t release information about the shooting until Wednesday evening.

As two vehicles were leaving the parking lot, witnesses told police, passengers in the vehicles exchanged gunfire.

According to a police report, the passenger in Olman Mauricio Fuentes Portillo’s car shot several times at a white Ford F-150, which had two men inside.

Then the passenger of the pickup fired several shots in return, striking Portillo, the report says.

Portillo was shot once in the head and crashed his car in the middle of Independence Boulevard, police said.

He was taken to Carolinas Medical Center and died Wednesday.

Anyone with information is asked to call 704-432-TIPS or Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

11 Year-Old West Charlotte Girl Injured in ‘Drive-By’ Shooting

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. / Charlotte Observer of Monday, May. 09, 2011

An 11-year-old Charlotte girl was recovering in the hospital after she was injured in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting in west Charlotte Sunday evening.

The girl’s leg injury was not life-threatening, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Capt. William Boger. She was taken to Carolinas Medical Center, where she was treated. Assault detectives planned to interview the girl after she was seen by doctors.

The shooting happened about 8 p.m. near the intersection of Caronia Street and Ross Avenue.

Police officers could be seen walking along Caronia Street with flashlights, searching for bullet casings on the road, which was blocked off by yellow tape. Gang detectives were also at the scene, though police had not said if the shooting was gang-related.

Boger said officers had only a vague description of the men suspected in the shooting – four black males in a blue car that might be a Ford station wagon or a Chevy Caprice.

After the shooting, dozens of people gathered in the twilight to watch the activity of police officers and paramedics, including several children about the girl’s age.

Hummer Stolen in East Charlotte Carjacking, Victims Cut with Knives

By Jeff Rivenbark / Tuesday, May 3, 2011

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) – Police say three people were carjacked at gunpoint in east Charlotte early Monday morning.

Police said they were called around 6 a.m. to the 10000 block of East W.T. Harris Boulevard in reference to an armed robbery.

The victims included two men, ages 28 and 26, and a 23-year-old woman. All three were in a sports utility vehicle.

The police report said around 2 a.m. six suspects forced the victims at gunpoint to drive around for about an hour.

The suspects cut the two male victims on their backs before forcing all three victims out of the vehicle.

The male victims were treated at Carolinas Medical Center-University City.

The suspects fled the scene in the victims’ blue 2006 Humvee Hummer H13 with tag No. YTA-5205.

If you have seen this vehicle, call Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

Charlotte, NC Mother Stops Attempted Sexual Assault of 4 Year-Old Daughter

by GLENN COUNTS / NewsChannel 36

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A Charlotte man was arrested early Wednesday morning, accused of trying to sexually assault a young girl.

The mother of that 4-year-old agreed to speak with NewsChannel 36 about the ordeal. We are not identifying her and spoke with her through an interpreter.

She is still trying to come to terms with the close call that happened at the Granville Apartments off of North Sharon Amity Road. That mother says she went to the restroom around 2:30 a.m. and when she came out, she saw a strange man standing over her daughter.

“She said he had taken her skirt off, her underwear,” the interpreter said.

That mother says she defended her daughter by attacking the suspect, and when he tried to escape her brothers held him down until police arrived.

Dario Orozco, 25, was arrested and charged with indecent liberties and sex offense. Investigators say Orozco is a neighbor and had been invited to the home by an uncle. However, the mother says she doesn’t know him.

“She said she had nothing to do with him,” the interpreter explained. “She never saw him before so she doesn’t know him.”

The mother says her 4-year-old never woke up and is doing okay. However, she is worried about Orozco getting out of jail because he allegedly threatened her and her daughter before police arrived.

Orozco’s bond has been set at $50,000.