Charlotte, North Carolina: Two Dead, Two Hurt in Steele Creek Shooting on Ridge Creek Drive

Two people are dead and two others are hurt after a shooting early Sunday morning in the 10000 block of Ridge Creek Drive in Charlotte, North Carolina, police said. The block is in the Steele Creek Division, in the city's southwest. Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Homicide Unit are conducting a homicide investigation there, the department said in a release published on Sunday, October 25.

WSOC Channel 9 reported that CMPD said two people were dead and two more were hurt in the shooting, in a report published at 6:51 a.m. EDT on Sunday. Queen City News reported the same count two minutes earlier, at 6:49 a.m. EDT: two killed and two injured in an early morning Steele Creek shooting. Both outlets attributed the toll to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

CMPD said two victims were transported to local hospitals for treatment. Homicide Unit detectives responded to the scene to conduct the investigation, and Crime Scene Search responded to process the scene and collect physical evidence. Representatives from CMPD's Operations Command and Victim Services, the Charlotte Fire Department and MEDIC also assisted, the department said.

Police had not released the names or ages of the people killed or hurt in the Sunday morning reports. They had not announced an arrest, named a suspect, or said what led to the shooting. The department said the investigation into this case is active and ongoing, and that more information will be released by its Public Affairs Division as it develops. Anyone with information is asked to call 704-432-8477 and speak directly to a Homicide Unit detective, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

A violent weekend in Charlotte

The Ridge Creek Drive case is one of three homicide investigations CMPD announced in Charlotte between Saturday evening and Sunday morning. On Saturday, October 24, at about 5:30 p.m., officers responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call in the 16000 block of Simril Court, also in the Steele Creek Division. Officers found one person with a gunshot wound, and the victim was taken to a hospital and later died. Police said they were not looking for a suspect in that case. At that scene, CMPD Major Stephen Iyevbele said: "Whenever we have incidents like this, it's heartbreaking. Without knowing what happened out here, I don't think violence is the answer to any dispute at all."

Late on Saturday, CMPD opened the second investigation, in the 10000 block of Altliff Court in the University City Division in northeast Charlotte. Police had released no further details by Sunday morning, had not publicly identified a victim, and have not said any of the three cases are connected.

What police have not said

For Ridge Creek Drive, the public record on Sunday morning is short. Police have confirmed the block, the division and the toll, and that two victims went to local hospitals. They have not said whether the shooting happened inside a home or outside on the street, whether the people involved knew each other, or how badly the two hospitalized victims were hurt. Steele Creek is a large residential area in southwest Charlotte, in Mecklenburg County, near Lake Wylie and the South Carolina state line, and Ridge Creek Drive is a residential street in that part of the city.