CHARLOTTE, NC – Sunday family members of 7-year-old Kevin Rodas gathered in Ramblewood Park to raise money for his funeral.
Rodas was one of four people shot at a birthday party outside a home on Fieldvale Place off Nations Ford Road Saturday night. Family members say the boy was shot while picking up candy from a piñata. Two adults and another child were hurt.
The boy’s brother-in-law Edgar Guevara talked with WCCB through a translator.
“He says when they broke the piñata, all the kids were together gathering some candies, that’s when everything started, firing. Like they were waiting for the moment, that’s what he thought so,” the translator said.
Police are trying to figure out who was targeted in the drive-by shooting. “He thinks that they did it on purpose,” the translator said.
While police were still on scene, shots rang out again a half mile away on Echodale Drive. Investigators say two people were shot, 30-year-old Laquanta Young died from her injuries.
Police haven’t said if they think the two might be connected. Neighbors are saddened.
“A tragedy when anybody gets shot…. it’s bad because it was two shootings right here in the same neighborhood,” says neighbor Beatrice Cunningham.
She and others in the community are hoping the suspects are caught or turn themselves in.
“It is something that you have to live with the rest of your life. If you think about what you done done to other people,” Cunningham says.
Meanwhile family continues to grieve the boy they say was bright and well-loved. “His teachers would admire him because he’s smart, and he was very happy most of the time,” Guevara said through the translator.
