Monroe Road McDonalds Evacuated After Man with Heroin Laced with Fentanyl Passes Out in Bathroom

From WSOC TV, June 21, 2017

A man was found Tuesday on the bathroom floor at the McDonald’s at Monroe Road and Sardis Road North in southeast Charlotte.

A 911 caller told police that the man had passed out on the floor. The man, later identified as Kristopher Anderson, had heroin mixed fentanyl, police said.

McDonald’s was evacuated and the Charlotte Fire Department’s Hazmat unit along with CMPD’s Clandestine Laboratory Response Unit responded to the scene.

More than 10 grams of the suspected heroin was seized.

Anderson was treated at Presbyterian Hospital and was released. He was charged with trafficking heroin.

The McDonald’s will remain closed to the public until it is decontaminated by a private company hired by them, police said.

After Charlotte Killing, Police Warn: Be Careful When You Buy or Sell on Craigslist

From WBTV by Jane Wester of the Charlotte Observer, June 21, 2017

The brother of a man killed in Charlotte this week faced cameras Tuesday, nearly breaking down as he begged the public for any information on his brother’s death, which is still unsolved.

Zachary Finch, 21, died Sunday. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police refused to directly connect his death to a sale made through Craigslist or a similar site, but other news outlets have reported that he was meeting someone to complete an online sale.

CMPD Sgt. Susan Manassah said Finch was engaged in a legal activity, but she wouldn’t provide more details.

In her advice about how to stay safe, Manassah focused on in-person meetings that follow a digital connection through a buying and selling service such as Craigslist or a dating app.

She said to meet in a public place where both parties feel comfortable, and to cancel the meeting if the other person isn’t willing to meet somewhere safe. Like other police departments, CMPD welcomes using the parking lots of police stations for the meetings.

“Tell people where you’re going, what it is you’re doing,” Manassah said. “If it’s too good to be true, then it’s not real.”

Finch’s older brother Nicholas called him loving and bubbly – a team player devoted to his baseball team at Kentucky’s University of the Cumberlands, where he pitched on a full scholarship.

“He always motivated everyone around him,” his brother said.

Finch was studying public health, with one year left to go before graduation.

Finch’s parents moved to the Charlotte area from south Florida a couple of years ago, and their three children attended college in different states. The family was planning to get together for the first time in months for the Fourth of July.

Nicholas Finch refused to comment on why his brother had come to the west Charlotte apartment complex where he was shot on Sunday.

Manassah called Charlotte’s rising homicide rate “senseless,” and said what happened to Finch could have happened to anyone.

She said police are especially eager to gather information from any possible witnesses because Finch was shot at about 1:30 on a Sunday afternoon.

“There’s windows, there’s parks, there’s kids playing. People were outside,” she said.

CMPD Begins Summer Initiative to Help Fight Crime

From WBTV by Coleen Harry, June 21, 2017

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say they’re implementing a plan to better fight crime as summer gets underway.

“This organization is committed to fighting crime and preventing crime,” Chief Kerr Putney said during the department’s weekly press briefing. “We need the community to step up and assist us.”

The Summer Initiative

CMPD plans to extend the workday. Chief Putney says the department will use money from a federal grant to cover overtime costs.

The Chief says officers can sign up to for overtime and work in areas of the city that are ‘hot-spots’ to help fight crime and do community engagement.

The department is also expanding bike patrols and walking beats.

Chief Putney says he wants officers to be in high pedestrian traffic areas so they can be visible and help people feel safer. The department believes foot and bike patrols help prevent crime, give high visibility, and officers are able to move around more.

“It’s being able to truly know your community and those who are in it. So you know who goes and stand out,” Chief Putney said. “And the other big thing is people feel safer and more comfortable when they can approach you and have that conversation. It’s about the humanistic element to it but the preventive, high visibility is really what we’re after.”

The numbers

CMPD says so far this year, the department has had 46 homicides.

• 34 of the victims knew their killers.
• 11 of this year’s homicides were domestic-related.
• 8 were robbery-related.
• 7 stemmed from arguments.
• Another 7 were drug-related.
• Police say about half of the victims were between the ages of 18 and 34.
• 37 of the victim were black.
• 34 of the suspects are black.
• 17 of the suspects have previous arrest charges.
• 2 of the suspect this were previously arrested for murder.
• 34 of the cases involved a gun.

CMPD says violent crime is trending down compared to the start of the year.

The chief is hoping the summer initiative will be an added value for communities.

“The goal is city-wide. Right now we’re moving for the summer but the goal is always city-wide,” Chief Putney said. “Lots of areas conducive to the type of foot patrol and we’re going to implement them as we bring on more resources.”

CMPD Searching for Homicide Suspect

Repeat Offender Arrested 25 Times Over 3 Years, Cut-Off Ankle Monitor and Fled After Judge Reduced His Bond

From wbtv.com by Sarah Blake-Morgan, June 15, 2017

A Charlotte homicide suspect and known repeat offender is on the run after CMPD says he cut his GPS device Thursday.

Last year, a judge set a $200,000 bond for Ricco McHam, 19, who is accused of shooting and killing a man last Fourth of July.

McHam was able to make bond and was required to wear an ankle monitor.

McHam was supposed to show up for court on Thursday, but didn’t. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says he cut his bracelet and took off.

Marcus Philemon, the founder of “Court Watch”, a local group that keeps a close eye on cases in Mecklenburg County, especially involving repeat offenders like McHam, predicted this.

“I’m not surprised. He actually lasted a little longer out than we had expected,” Philemon said.

Philemon has been following McHam over three years and through dozens of arrests. After his murder charge, Philemon questioned why he was given bond in the first place.

“Why you would set a bond so low to allow a murder suspect with a track record to get even remotely close to where they could bond out, it’s an injustice to the community,” Philemon said. “We’ll never know why a judge decided to reduce the bond so low to where this individual could bond out”.

He did and now Philemon worries what he’ll do next since he’s already facing a murder charge.

“What does he have to lose? He’s been arrested 25 times in three years,” he said.

Police say McHam cut his monitor in the 4800 block of Park Road. They ask you to call Crimestoppers or 911 immediately if you spot him. 

CMPD Seeking Public’s Help in Finding Man Who Cut Off Electronic Monitoring Device

Man Wanted for Multiple Crimes in Charlotte

From wbtv.com, June 5, 2017

A man wanted for several crimes in the Charlotte area cut his monitoring device off, police say.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say 18-year-old Malik Danthony Medley cut off his electronic monitoring device Saturday. He was court-ordered to wear the device as a condition of his pretrial release.

Medley is wanted for felony breaking and entering, larceny after breaking and entering, possession of stolen foods, felony conspiracy, damage to property and interfering with an electronic monitoring device. 

Anyone with information on Medley’s whereabouts is asked to call 911 or the Electronic Monitoring Unit at 704-432-TIPS, option 3.