GA man killed while visiting Uptown Charlotte for holiday weekend

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The parents of a man gunned down in Uptown Charlotte over the 4th of July holiday weekend are making a passionate plea saying “something needs to happen” to make the city safe again.

Twenty-seven year old Gabriel Jacob Lee and 18-year-old Colby Cash Smith are dead after a shooting in a parking lot on North Caldwell Street in Uptown.

“To watch them pick my son up and put him in a body bag with the car still running and the music blaring because he was trying to leave and put him in on that stretcher and wheel him over and throw my child in the back of a van…I know that this is what they do, but to a mother, it feels like he’s a nobody,” Pastor Nekisha Cosey, Lee’s mother said.

Pastor Nekisha Cosey says her son was in Charlotte to celebrate the holiday weekend while she and her son were also in Charlotte for a family reunion.

Pastor Nicholas Cosey says his son left Brooklyn Lounge around 1:30 Saturday morning and became an innocent bystander caught in crossfire in the parking lot.

“There were multiple vehicles that had bullets,” Pastor Nicholas Cosey said. “Even the crime scene, it looked like a war zone when we came here that night, there were bullet fragments all over this parking lot.”

The Coseys say they lived in Charlotte for several years before moving to Georgia. They say Uptown isn’t what it used to be.

“Something needs to happen. Something needs to take place where the citizens of this community will feel safe again,” Pastor Nicholas Cosey said.

The Coseys think there were multiple shooters because of the number of bullet holes in their son’s car. They want the faith community to partner with police to help promote safe streets.

“It’s just absolutely egregious,” Pastor Nekisha Cosey said. “How many mothers have to cry like this and have to feel this anger and this rage and be upset?”

Lee’s family tells WCCB they believe CMPS is doing their job to find out who killed their son and they say they know these investigations take time. CMPD has been tight lipped about any suspects. If you know anything about what happened outside Brooklyn Lounge around 1:30 Saturday morning on July 5th, call crime stoppers at 704-432-TIPS.

The Coseys are planning a balloon release in the parking lot on North Caldwell Street Saturday at 5pm.