CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department is investigating after shots were fired into an AutoZone full of customers in Lower South End.
A bullet hole could be seen in the side of the building and a window in the front of the store had been boarded up after being shattered.
Police said the incident occurred around 6 p.m. Wednesday night at the AutoZone on South Boulevard near Scaleybark Road.
Channel 9′s Erika Jackson spoke with Anita Zarey, who lives across the street from the store. Zarey said the back and side windows of her van were shattered just before 6 p.m. Wednesday.
She said her husband and grandson were in the parked van minutes prior. “It was thump, thump, thump, and I thought somebody hit in the house,” she explained.
CMDP said someone shot Zarey’s van on Dewitt Lane around the same time someone fired shots into the AutoZone. The AutoZone can be seen from Zarey’s driveway.
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Zarey expressed that she believes her once quiet, suburban neighborhood is changing.
“I guess with all the growth and all the different people coming to the area. We didn’t have problems before the people came,” Zarey said. Now I have to get more cameras. I got to do a whole lot of different things just to stay here and feel as safe as I was before.
She said she has reached out to city leaders following the shooting to ask them to take a look at the growing crime in the area.
Police said they believe both shootings are connected, however, no one has been arrested in connection with either case.
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