Police: 2 face charges for involvement in shooting at Frankie’s Fun Park
Two men have been charged for their involvement in a shooting at Frankie’s Fun Park earlier this month, Huntersville police said.
Several vehicles were shot into just after 10 p.m. on Jan. 6 at Frankie’s of Charlotte, an amusement center and arcade in Huntersville, according to a police report obtained by Channel 9.
Police found two SUVs with their windows shattered by gunfire. The police report says the Frankie’s Fun Park building was also shot into.
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On Thursday, Huntersville police said Amiere Adair and Elijah Smith, both 19 and from Charlotte, have been charged with 15 various crimes. The charges include multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, assault on a law enforcement officer, and damage to property.
Huntersville Police thanked everyone for social media tips they received last week, which helped them identify the two men.
Frankie’s was open at the time of the shooting, according to the center’s hours of operation.
According to the Huntersville Police Department, there was an argument between two people just before the shooting happened. The suspects were seen on surveillance video leaving Frankie’s, and they got into a car “with some sort of tarp, or covering, on the rear driver’s side window.”
While the car was leaving, the suspects fired about 11 shots toward the building. Police said there were “adults and children inside the vehicles” who were narrowly missed by the shots.
‘God was just watching over us’
A woman who narrowly avoided those bullets said the gunfire could have killed her and her baby.
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“You said you pulled him out and were checking for blood?” Channel 9′s Hannah Goetz asked the woman, who did not want to be identified.
“Right, nothing. He was shielded, God was just watching over us like he always does and I’m just thankful,” she said.
She said she was picking up her daughter from her job at Frankie’s. Her boyfriend was in the front seat and her other daughter ran inside the park to play while they waited. That’s when she said she heard and argument, and then -- gunshots.
“We heard argument and then seconds later, gunfire, and then my window shattered not even an inch from my infant that was asleep in the car,” she said.
She describes the moments bullets shattered the back windows of her car, where her baby was sleeping in his car seat.
“My thoughts as a mother, I didn’t care about bullets flying all I cared about was getting my child out the car,” she said.
Huntersville police released security video on Jan. 9 in hopes someone would recognize the suspects. Ten days later, police announced Adair’s and Smith’s arrests.
The mom told Goetz had the timing been different, this story would have turned tragic. She said the bullet went through her car.
“Do you think if you had that full car, that someone would have been hit?” Goetz asked.
“Of course, less than a minute earlier I had three other kids in the back seat,” she said.
The bullet hole is still there, and she calls it a reminder of how precious life truly is.
“Everything happens for a reason,” she said. “Sometimes things happen to humble us, so we can appreciate life ourself.”
Her son turns one at the end of the month. As he cried in the background, she has one last message for anyone listening.
“Stop the gun violence. Think before you pull out those weapons, life is too short and you don’t know who you are taking away from somebody else,” she said.
The police report lists eight victims in the shooting, though most of them weren’t hurt, it says. One victim was taken to the hospital after receiving “severe lacerations.”
Both Adair and Smith are being held without bond at the Mecklenburg County jail.
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