Third Family Member Arrested in Disturbing Case of Child Abuse

Third Family Member Arrested in Disturbing Case of Child Abuse

Police on Monday arrested the grandmother and legal guardian of Dominique McKnight, a 6-year-old girl who was found dead as a result of child abuse in her east Charlotte home last week. Tonya McKnight has been charged with four counts of misdemeanor child abuse and one count of child abuse inflicting serious mental or physical injury. 

Officers alleged in Tonya McKnight’s arrest affidavit that she “has completed prolonged torture on her children and grand children [sic],” WBTV reported. 

First responders were sent to the McKnight house on Dec. 16 following reports of a child not breathing. The 6-year-old was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Though the specific cause of death has not yet been made public, she is believed to have died as a result of abuse.

Investigators found multiple gruesome injuries to Dominique’s knees, arms, legs and face, including broken bones, ligature scars, and rashes along her genitals and buttocks believed to be caused by prolonged exposure to urine and feces, as reported by WCNC. Dominique weighed just 27 pounds when she was found. 

The other children in the home, ranging from 13 months to 6 years old, said the girl was forced to live in a dog crate in the living room and was later made to sleep on a feces-ridden bathroom floor. McKnight is the third woman facing charges for the child abuse and neglect alongside her sister Susan Robinson and daughter Tery’n McKnight.

The house on Gwynne Hill Road where this abuse allegedly occurred caught fire on Wednesday. No injuries were reported though the fire caused $65,000 in damage in the 40 minutes it took firefighters to contain it. 

The Charlotte Fire Investigation Task Force later said its investigators determined the fire was intentionally set. That investigation is ongoing, as is the abuse case. Prosecutors are considering bringing murder charges — potentially charges of murder by torture — against the family members.  

Oversight Committee Opens Charlotte Transit Safety Probe

In response to high-profile crimes occurring on the Blue Line light rail over the last half of 2025, the NC House Oversight Committee (NC HOC) is demanding that city and county leaders turn over reams of information from the last five years involving public safety and conservative culture war issues such as DEI. 

On Friday, Dec. 19, the NC HOC sent an inquiry to Mayor Vi Lyles, City of Charlotte Manager Marcus Jones, Mecklenburg County Manager Mike Bryant, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather, CMPD Chief Estella Patterson, and Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden requesting all communications from Jan. 1, 2020 to present that involve certain topics. 

Those topics include the murder of Iryna Zarutska; “the perceived or actual rise in crime” on public transit; any efforts to “reimagine policing;” the Charlotte Area Transit System as it relates to security, staffing, public safety and criminal incidents; law enforcement recruiting; policies or practices involving cooperation with federal immigration enforcement; DEI initiatives; and other related topics. 

The committee chairs have demanded that city and county leaders provide this information, along with a slew of other data that was requested, by Jan. 8, 2026.

City leaders have publicly discussed efforts related to safety on public transit at length in recent months, including a meeting on the one-month anniversary of Zarutska’s murder in which officials with CATS and Professional Police Services, which is contracted out to provide security on CATS properties, gave a presentation about the topic to Charlotte City Council. 

Read more about what they had to say here. 

Man Dead, Two Officers Hit in Mint Hill Shootout

A man is dead and two police officers in the hospital after a child custody exchange turned violent in Mint Hill on Friday. 

The incident unfolded at an Edible Arrangements in the Mint Hill Commons shopping center shortly after 10:45 a.m. Friday morning. Officers with the Mint Hill Police Department (MHPD) responded to the business to oversee a child custody exchange. 

“During the interaction, the male subject produced a firearm. An exchange of gunfire occurred, and two Mint Hill Police officers were struck. Both officers are in critical condition,” read a release from the MHPD.

Officers shot and killed the man who opened fire on them. As of Friday afternoon, MHPD confirmed that both officers were in stable condition and promised to release more information on Saturday. At the time of this writing, no more information has been made available. 

“This morning in Mint Hill, two law enforcement officers were shot on duty and are now in critical condition. My prayers are with them and their families for their full recovery,” wrote Gov. Josh Stein on social media. “Our officers run toward danger every day to keep us all safe. We must do all we can to support them.” 

Bea Coté, founder and executive director of domestic violence intervention organization IMPACT+, pleaded with politicians to do more to prevent such incidents in a public post on Facebook. 

“POLITICIANS – stop with the thoughts and prayers and promises to do something about violence- how about asking what you can do about DOMESTIC abuse- especially when it hasn’t escalated to physical/criminal abuse,” she wrote. “If you stop it at Coercive Control you may well stop these tragedies.”

Two Teens Killed in Double Shooting off Nations Ford

Investigators have unveiled that two teenage males found suffering from gunshot wounds miles apart from each other are believed to have been victims of the same shooting that occurred early last Saturday morning at an apartment complex off Nations Ford Road in southwest Charlotte. 

Shortly after 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 20, police responded to a check-the-welfare call on East Woodlawn Road near the I-77 interchange, where they found a teenage boy suffering from a gunshot wound. Medic transported the teen to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. 

Investigators later reported that they believe the teen and another victim who arrived at Novant Hospital in Elizabeth, where he was also pronounced dead, were both shot on Farmhurst Drive in southwest Charlotte and each drove themselves away from the scene to find help. 

It’s unclear which victim ended up at which location, but they have been identified as 16-year-old Braulio Galeano Ayala and 18-year-old Samir Canales Molina. 

In the above map, black markers signify deaths by gun violence, green markers signify killings that may be deemed justified, red markers signify stabbings, yellow markers signify murder by vehicle, purple markers signify deaths by trauma or unknown cause, and blue markers signify police killings.

After a murder in University City and stabbing death in Washington Heights, both occurring on Dec. 23, Queen City Nerve has tracked nine homicides in Charlotte thus far in December. Following three quarters of declining violent crime rates, the fourth quarter of 2025 has been the bloodiest of the year thus far, according to our tracking, with 36 homicides. 

So far this year, we’ve tracked 106 killings, compared to 122 at the same time last year. 

Man Dies in Custody at Mecklenburg County Jail

The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) announced Friday that it is investigating the death of 42-year-old Jason Hicks, who was in custody at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center-Central facility in Uptown at the time of his death early that morning. 

According to an MCSO release, a detention officer flagged a medical emergency at approximately 4:37 a.m. on Friday morning. The responding medical provider determined that Hicks required further medical care and called Medic, which transported Hicks to Atrium Health Main, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 8:27 a.m.

“I have the unfortunate duty of sharing the passing of Mr. Jason Hicks, who was in our custody,” Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden stated in the release. “Any loss is heartbreaking, and it can feel even heavier during the holidays. His next of kin has been notified, and we extend our condolences to his family and loved ones, with hopes they find comfort in the memories they shared with him.”

Hicks’ cause of death is not yet known. The cause of death is also still unknown how 62-year-old Terry Howard died while incarcerated at the jail in August. 

In November, it was found that a man who had died while incarcerated at the jail, also in August, “was unintentionally administered a recently discharged inmate’s methadone dose,” a medication used to treat the symptoms of opioid withdrawal.