No evidence to suggest shooting inside Asian grocery racially motivated, CMPD says
A shooting inside an Asian grocery store in east Charlotte injured one person, but Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say there isn’t evidence that suggests the incident was racially motivated.
Officers responded to call for an assault with a deadly weapon just after 10 a.m. Sunday at Asian Grocery in the 5600 block of Farm Pond Lane, CMPD said in a statement Tuesday. Officers found a person with a gunshot wound inside the business. Medic transported the victim to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said.
On Tuesday, CMPD detectives arrested Vantroy Greene, 23, and charged him with attempted murder and possession of a stolen firearm. Greene was transferred to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.
Police have not identified a motive but said nothing indicates the victim was “targeted due to his race and/or nationality.”
“CMPD recognizes the sensitivity of Asian victimization at this time across the country and will continue to collect intelligence related to national trends and remain focused on the impact in our community to ensure the safety of all,” police said in the statement.
Recent attacks on Asian-Americans
Sunday’s shooting comes weeks after eight people were shot and killed in the Atlanta area, including six who were Asian-American women working in massage businesses. Police have not said whether the shootings were a hate crime. A 65-year-old woman of Asian descent also was attacked in New York on March 29.
In Charlotte last month, a man wielding a metal post yelled racial slurs while trashing an Asian-owned convenience store at the Charlotte Transit Center in uptown, the Observer reported.
Surveillance footage of the March 30 incident shows a man entering the store, pulling a rack full of merchandise to the floor and swinging a street sign post in an attempt to break the glass on the refrigerators. Customers filed out of the store, some jumping over the spilled merchandise on the floor.
Xavier Rashee Woody-Silas, 24, was arrested and charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, injury to personal property, disorderly conduct, communicating threats, resisting a public officer, and ethnic intimidation, according to the Sheriff’s Office website.
Police ask anyone with information on Sunday’s shooting to call 704-432-2169, or contact Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or charlotte.crimestoppersweb.com.
Amanda Zhou contributed to this report.
