HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – A North Charlotte church is dealing with repeat teen takeovers that have now become violent. Church members found shell casings scattered across the Faith City Church parking lot near Huntersville.
“Like 25 kids were finding bullets on the church ground and they were a little damaged by that,” Bishop Amere May said.
Bishop May says the shots were fired late Saturday night into Sunday morning.
“I just think this was motivated by young teenagers being very violent in their approach. Guns was involved, marijuana use was involved, alcohol was involved,” May said. “This is not the first time our church has been targeted.”
Surveillance cameras caught some images of the mayhem. Church leaders say a similar gathering happened in their parking lot over the summer, but the crowds are getting larger and more violent causing damage to the church grounds.
“It started off small, like the Bishop said, but in the last two instances, especially this one, it was about like two, three, probably even more, 100 people out here,” Minister Tedarial Edwards Head of Security said.
Church leaders say the teens damaged and vandalized signs and fences. They want parents held accountable for the teens behavior.
“Young teenagers out at two and three in the morning. I think the parents should be held accountable as well,” Bishop May said. “We are property owners and we deserve better.”
Under a pilot program, the City of Charlotte implemented a 10pm curfew for teens, but the night of the mayhem there were no police in the area. Leaders say they want to see the other agencies get involved to make sure this never happens again.
“We do need the state or the city to get involved to kind of block this dead end,” Bishop May said. “If you can see they dump over there, we keep our property up and what they dump over there, they do drugs over there.”
The church is now raising money to get a more durable fence to keep people out after hours. They’re also looking for tips for who fired shots on their property early Sunday morning.
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