Shootings Into Occupied Buildings Continue to Spike

CHARLOTTE, NC — Bullets, hitting homes and businesses across charlotte, while people are inside. And it’s happening more.

CMPD has seen a more than 60% increase this year in cases of shooting into occupied property.

“We are seeing a spike in shooting into occupied dwellings,” says CMPD Officer John Frisk.

The latest shooting left the side of a home riddled with bullets in the druid hills neighborhood; a neighborhood filled with young children.

Shantea Hill lives two doors down on Justice Avenue with her kids. She moved in last November, and this gun violence hits too close to home.

“It does,” says Hill. “But you know, because I honestly didn’t know the type of neighborhood was that bad.”

Six shots were fired in the middle of the night here in this Charlotte neighborhood, on the corner of Justice Avenue and Isenhour. Fortunately, everyone inside this home was okay. But this is happening more often in the city of Charlotte, and CMPD is making a priority of trying to stop it.

There have already been 238 cases of shooting into occupied property this year. There were 159 at the same point last year. That is an increase of 68%.

“We are stepping up patrols in all these neighborhoods,” says Officer Frisk. “And we are going to target offenders who just think they’re just going to come and start shooting up places.”

CMPD is focusing efforts on going after priority offenders.

They arrested Treon Livingston on Monday. He’s accused of shooting five people, who were inside Reba’s Bar and Grill in West Charlotte, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Officer Frisk says the best defense is to always be aware of your surroundings.

“If you see somebody maybe driving by a couple of times on the street, or anything that looks suspicious at all, you immediately maybe want to go inside,” says Frisk. “Or definitely, immediately call 911.”

“It’s not just over here, it’s everywhere,” says Shantea Hill. “You know it’s on this side, east side, north side. I mean.”

Treon Livingston is charged with five counts of attempted murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into occupied property and possession of a firearm by felon.