Family of Shelby man killed thinks past is to blame

SHELBY, N.C. — The family of man killed Saturday thinks he might have been killed because of his past.

22-year-old Devosia Chatma was shot while sitting inside a car on East Dixon Boulevard. Chatman had just left a party at AMVETS Post 42. Just before going to the party, he'd stopped by his grandmother's house.

"He got himself a drink and said 'OK grandma, I'm gone.' And that was it," said Velvet McDowell, Chatman's grandmother.

McDowell said Chatman didn't express any fears but she sensed something was wrong. Chatman had just been released from prison after being convicted in a 2008 shooting, in which a stray bullet hit a 7-year-old girl.

"He was trying to get his life back together," said McDowell. "Nobody deserves that...because it hurts."

Not only is Chatman's grandmother dealing with that hurt, his sisters told us they were shocked to hear their brother had been killed just 10 days after getting out of prison.

"It was messed up," said Whitney Chatman. "Seemed like a set-up, the way they did it."

Chatman's sister said she was told that the shooters fired primarily into the area of the car that her brother was sitting in and not at any of the other people inside his car.

Shelby Police arrested 22-year-old Aaron Smith Sunday and told Eyewitness News that they are still looking for at least one other suspect.

WSOC