Woman arrested, charged in one of two Charlotte homicides Monday night

CHARLOTTE — Detectives with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have made an arrest in one of the two separate homicides that happened with an hour of one another Monday night.

The first was in north Charlotte at the intersection of Old Statesville Road and West W.T. Harris Boulevard. That’s where police said someone shot and killed 21-year-old Aaron Shuford Jr. inside a car.

A short time later, 58-year-old Ernest Lightner was shot to death in west Charlotte’s Washington Heights neighborhood, near the intersection of Tate and Campus streets.

Police have not said what led to the shootings.

During the investigation, 29-year-old Gina Kilgo was identified as a suspect in the death of Lightner and warrants were issued for her arrest.

She arrested by CMPD’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Team and after interviewing with detectives, she was charged with murder.

No arrests have been in Shuford’s death.

There were no apparent connections between the two murders.

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CMPD hopes the public can help solve the crimes.

“Regardless of someone’s past, no one wants someone’s family to have to experience being a family member to a victim of a homicide,” CMPD Maj. Ryan Butler said.

Just a few miles down the road from those crimes, Charlotte City Council spoke Monday night about having more clinicians respond to calls related to mental health.

Council members are trying to find a way to shift the response of lower risk calls to civilians instead of officers. That would give police an opportunity to focus more on things such as violent crimes. Council also wants to dedicate $1 million to violence prevention and have a summit to figure out the best way to divvy out that money.

“We’ll talk about all of it during the summit, and we will get feedback before any of the funds are allocated,” City Manager Marcus Jones said.

Return to this story for updates.

Police investigating Charlotte's third homicide in 12 hours

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