CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There was an emotional call to end violence in one of Charlotte’s crime hot spots.
Dozens of people marched on Beatties Ford Road and Lasalle around noon on Friday. The march comes just days after 14-year-old Terreon Geter was shot and killed in the middle of the day. Before that, four people were killed and several others were injured during a shooting at a block party on Father’s Day.
The mother of one of shooting victims is speaking out and the teacher of the teenager who died.
Some of the people who marched on Friday had a message for the city council and their own community.
Along a stretch of road where there’s been immense pain, some see the immeasurable potential.
“The sky is the limit for Beatties Ford,” said Corine Mack, president of the NAACP in Charlotte.
Mack was among those marching to end violence on Beatties Ford Road.
“We’re saying enough is enough,” said Mack.
It comes after two deadly shootings in less than two weeks. On Father’s Day, gunfire erupted during a block party killing four people and injuring several others. One woman at Friday’s march said her daughter is one of the shooting survivors.
“My daughter is sitting there with staples from here to here, bullets still in her,” she said. “We’re not serious. We can’t protest and march and then kill each other, what kind of example is that?.”
Then on Tuesday, two people were shot in the middle of the day, including 14-year-old Terreon Geter who died.
“He was an overcomer, he had overcome so many obstacles,” said Shang Hopkins, Geter’s teacher and football coach at Ranson Middle School.
Hopkins said he wants to create a community center where the teenager was killed.
“I don’t want this to be just another person shot and then week later we move on and forget about it,” said Hopkins.
The gun violence comes just months after the city identified Beatties Ford Road as one of four crime hot spots in Charlotte. Mack is calling for city leaders to help the struggling area with resources.
“I’m saying to the city council, do your job, you have failed us,” said Mack. “Having one Food Lion is not enough. Just imagine if we had seven supercenters right here, how many jobs we could create right away.”
No arrests have been made in either of the recent shootings on Beatties Ford Road.
