5 Things to Know: MCSO Opens Recording Studio in Jail, Immediately Apologizes to Victim’s Family

MCSO Takes Flak for Recording Studio, Rehabilitation Program

The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) on Tuesday celebrated the opening of Studio W5HY?, a state-of-the-art soundproof music recording studio in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center in Uptown, part of a new MCSO program titled Rhythm & Reflection: A Journey to Reformation. 

Funded in part by the Tim Bergling Foundation and established in honor of the late Swedish artist Avicii (Tim Bergling), the recording studio space aims to provide incarcerated folks with tools for healing, self-expression and lasting change, according to a release announcing the studio’s opening this week. 

“Studio W5HY? will serve as a powerful outlet for musical creation, poetry and the spoken word,  giving voice to stories that often go unheard,” stated Sheriff Garry McFadden in the release. “I am excited to see how this new music program changes the lives of our residents.” 

MCSO quickly took flak for the project, however, after news coverage of Tuesday’s opening showed an alleged murder suspect utilizing the recording studio, angering the victim’s family. 

Anthony Zellars Jr., 29, was shot and killed on West Arrowhead Road last fall. His family said they were not notified that a man who has been charged and is awaiting trial in connection to his killing would be featured in a television news story about the studio. 

“The MCSO extends its deepest sympathy to the Zellars family,” read a release from the department on Friday. “We recognize the profound grief you continue to carry after the loss of your son, and we are truly sorry for the additional pain caused by seeing the accused in recent media coverage promoting a detention center program.

“MCSO does not typically notify families when residents are involved in media coverage,” the statement continued. “However, in this case we acknowledge that given the circumstances, this should have warranted greater sensitivity … The purpose of our programs is not to determine guilt or innocence, but to offer support and structure for those willing to engage in change.”

Gastonia Parents Charged for Neglect After Child Killed by Unrelated Driver

The Gastonia Police Department (GPD) filed criminal charges against the parents of a 7-year-old boy who died after a driver struck and killed him with their vehicle while he attempted to cross a street on Tuesday. The driver is not facing any charges. 

According to GPD, a call came in around 5:55 p.m. that the boy had been struck while crossing West Hudson Boulevard near Lynhaven Gardens and South Gastonia. Responding officers found that a 76-year woman was driving a Jeep Cherokee eastbound when she struck the boy, who was with his 10-year-old brother at the time. The boy was not in a crosswalk when he was hit. 

Medic transported the boy to CaroMont Regional Medical Center in Gastonia with life-threatening injuries and he was later transferred to Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte, where he was pronounced dead at around 10 p.m.

“While the Gastonia Police Department offers its deepest sympathies to the family for the heartbreaking loss of their child, the investigation revealed that the children involved were unsupervised at the time the boy stepped into traffic,” read a release from the department. “In such cases, adults must be held accountable for their responsibilities to ensure a safe environment for their children.” 

The child’s parents, a 30-year-old woman and 31-year-old man, were arrested and charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, felony child neglect and misdemeanor child neglect.

The boys were attempting to cross West Hudson Boulevard, a four-lane highway with grass medians in most parts, near Lyon Street, where a Food Lion and the Gaston County Health Department are located. No charges were filed against the driver, as the department found no evidence of speeding or wrongdoing on her part, according to the release. 

Mother and Baby Found Dead in Sugar Creek Hotel

Police believe a woman and her baby who were found dead in the Baymont by Wyndham hotel on the Sugar Creek Road corridor had been dead for weeks before their bodies were discovered by hotel staff on Friday. 

It’s unclear what caused the tenants’ deaths, though police do not believe foul play was involved. 

In a Facebook Live video made while police were responding to the call, the hotel’s operator Cedric Dean said the woman and her child were part of a Heal Charlotte program that operated at the hotel up until April. 

Dean took over operations at the hotel in early May and attempted to relocate anyone who was left there from the Heal Charlotte program, which served women with children, as he did not believe they would be safe there with the tenants involved in his program, which provides transitional housing for justice-involved folks. 

Read more: Baymont Hotel Displacement Upends Lives of Already Vulnerable Tenants

Cemeka Mitchem, the housing director for Cedric Dean’s Heal Empower Love Protect (HELP) program at the hotel, told WSOC that staff does a daily room check for HELP tenants every day but did not include the woman because she was a holdover from the Heal Charlotte program. 

During his Facebook Live video reacting to the news on Friday, Dean said he discontinued room checks for Heal Charlotte tenants after he was charged with breaking-and-entering in connection with his efforts to convince one such tenant to move out in May, as reported by Queen City Nerve. He blamed the city for not relocating all Heal Charlotte tenants who remained in the hotel when he moved his tenants in, saying that city officials had “blood on their hands.” 

Multiple Arrests Made in Mass Shooting Believed To Be Gang Initiation

Police have arrested eight people in connection with a mass shooting that occurred at a house party in Catawba County last Saturday night, during which multiple shooters reportedly opened fire on partygoers from an elevated hillside next to the home in a targeted, gang-initiation attack. 

One suspect who went in front of a judge on Friday told the judge that the attack was part of a gang initiation ritual “to elevate his rank,” according to WCNC’s in-depth reporting of the incident. 

Police on Sunday identified 58-year-old Shawn Patrick Hood as the man killed in the shooting. We are unaware of any reporting that suggests the people targeted in the attack had any relation to gangs. 

According to NBC News, sheriff’s deputies and Hickory police officers responded to a call about a shooting at a home on Walnut Acres Drive in the Mountain View community, about 57 miles northwest of Charlotte, at 12:45 a.m. on Sunday morning, nearly two hours after a noise complaint was originally called in for the property. 

First responders found 12 shooting victims, including Hood and another who was brought to a Charlotte hospital in critical condition. The rest were treated at local hospitals. 

‘Stop Cop City’ Protesters Release Crickets in County Commission Meeting

Protesters shut down the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting for a short time on Tuesday night, releasing crickets in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center chambers to symbolize the silence of CPCC officials who refuse to speak publicly or answer questions about the construction of the so-called “Cop City” law enforcement training facility being built at the school’s Matthews campus. 

The meeting was paused for a short time while a staff member vacuumed the crickets up and the public forum portion of the meeting was canceled. Following the break, commissioners adopted a new operating budget for Fiscal Year 2026 totaling $2.5 billion, an increase of $39.5 million, or 1.6%, over the current FY ’25 operating budget. 

Read more: Community Members Speak Against ‘Cop City’ Construction in Matthews 

“On Tuesday, the [BOCC] met and voted to approve the 2026 budget. The county is slashing funding for education, cultural programs, and social services,” read a post from the @cltstopcopcity account on Instagram.

“Meanwhile, the county continues to fund and protect the Cop City project of [CPCC]. $116 million of taxpayers dollars are going to this violent and destructive plan … When community makes a comment about it, they get shut down. When they go to CPCC meetings, they get kicked out. When they ask questions, they get crickets. So the commissioners got crickets too!”