100 Shots Fired Saturday Night Near CIAA Festivities

CHARLOTTE, NC – Around 100 shots were fired close to CIAA festivities Saturday night. We’re hearing from those who escaped the crossfire.

“Scary. Just really scary,” one woman said.

Caught in the line of fire, she says she was driving her 92-year-old grandmother home when she saw bullets flying off the pavement.

“All of a sudden, she’s ducking and I’m thinking, ‘Oh God,’ so I just quickly threw the car in reverse and backed up and then flew down that street right there to avoid getting hit,” she says.

Later, she discovered a bullet hole and other damage to her car.

Police say more than 100 shots were fired just after 6:30 Saturday night near the 600 block of North Caldwell Street.

On one side of the street, an apartment complex, windows riddled with bullets.

On the other, vendors set up for people enjoying the CIAA festivities.

“It’s crazy when you think about it because I was extremely surprised that no one get shot during it all,” one woman says.

She was working in a food truck with her brother when the gunfire began.

“He was like, ‘Get down! Get down!’ and then the minute we got down a bullet hit behind us where we just were standing at,” she says.

“That bullet don’t have nobody’s name on it. You know, we got kids and families around here,” explains John Clifton.

Clifton operated a party tent just down from where the shooting happened.

He’s disappointed things like this take away from more positive aspects of CIAA weekend.

“Even with the incidents around here, nothing affected us. And I think what it was, it came maybe from the street or whatever,” he says.