CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Plaza Midwood Merchants Association met with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department on Wednesday afternoon to discuss safety concerns in the neighborhood.
The meeting took place just days after a video surfaced on Reddit, which appeared to show a man in a ski mask ducking behind a car with a rifle. The title of the video said it was taken outside of the Peculiar Rabbit in Plaza Midwood.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes in the neighborhood along with the city’s growth, but acts of violence really don’t occur like this very often and so we want to try to get to bottom of this,” Clifton Castelloe, the President of the Plaza Midwood Merchants Association, said.
Plaza Midwood is a popular hang-out spot with a lot of bars and restaurants, and those business owners are worried about what they saw.
CMPD was unable to verify the video, but it did confirm officers responded to a “shots fired” call early Saturday morning on Pecan Avenue in Plaza Midwood. According to officers, no injuries were reported, but one of the bullets hit an unoccupied car.
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“It was really like it was from another world,” Blake Barnes, owner of the Common Market, said after seeing the video. “Out of all my years here, I’ve never seen that type of thing happen.”
Barnes has watched the neighborhood transform. He opened the Common Market 20 years ago, and he said the neighborhood has changed a lot since then. Barnes said he would like to see more off-duty officers patrolling the neighborhood.
“It worked before, it’ll work again,” Barnes said.
Thomas Neelon, who owns a hot dog stand in Plaza Midwood, said he would also like to see added security measures.
“We just have to do something,” Neelon said. “Whether it be more cameras or more security at the events they’re having.”
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Neelon is legally blind and he operates his hot dog stand in Plaza Midwood because it’s easy for him to get around the area without a car. He was one of several business owners who met with CMPD on Wednesday afternoon in the meeting organized by the Plaza Midwood Merchants Association.
Despite all this, Charlotte resident Emily Haddock said she feels comfortable in the neighborhood that she called home for three years.
“I would say it’s safe,” Haddock said. “I would feel comfortable walking around late at night.”
Contact Indira Eskieva at ieskieva@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.