Shootings leave 5 dead, 5 injured in Charlotte

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Charlotte police officers are being called back in from days off and vacations after five people have been killed and five others hurt in shootings during a violent Labor Day holiday weekend in North Carolina’s largest city.

The dead include a 7-year-old boy killed during a birthday party about 9 p.m. Saturday in a front yard in southwest Charlotte. Another child and two other adults were wounded, but their injuries were not life threatening, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Deputy Chief Jeff Estes said.

“It’s a sad state of affairs in the city and our country when a 7-year-old boy can’t be free to celebrate a birthday party without being murdered,” Estes said at a news conference Sunday.