The killings unfolded over about 25 hours, with two teenagers among the dead and one woman charged with murder.
CHARLOTTE, NC — Five people were killed in four separate shootings across Charlotte from early Saturday into Sunday morning, including two people killed in a shooting that left four victims wounded at a southwest Charlotte industrial area, according to police.
The series of killings unfolded over roughly 25 hours on Oct. 24 and Oct. 25 and led Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department homicide detectives to four separate scenes. Police identified three of the five people killed by Sunday night, while the identity of another adult victim had not been publicly released. One of the dead was a 16-year-old whose name was withheld because of the victim’s age. Authorities announced an arrest in one of the cases, but investigators had not publicly linked the four fatal shootings or announced a common motive.
The first fatal shooting was reported shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday in the 700 block of High Meadow Lane in the Steele Creek Division. Officers responding to a report of gunfire found 35-year-old Zachary Howie with an apparent gunshot wound. MEDIC pronounced him dead at the scene. Police said homicide detectives and crime scene investigators responded to collect evidence. No arrest or motive had been announced in the case as of Sunday.
About 14 hours later, police responded to another shooting in Steele Creek. Officers were called to the 16000 block of Simril Court at approximately 5:27 p.m. Saturday and found a victim with an apparent gunshot wound. MEDIC transported the person to a local hospital, where the victim was pronounced dead. Police said detectives were not looking for any additional involved parties at the time of the initial investigation, but authorities did not publicly explain the circumstances surrounding the shooting or release the victim’s identity in the information reviewed Sunday.
A third fatal shooting was reported at about 11:03 p.m. Saturday in the 10000 block of Altliff Court in northeast Charlotte’s University City Division. Police found 47-year-old Thomas McDonald suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Charlotte Fire personnel pronounced him dead at the scene. Detectives later identified 25-year-old Andrea Cole as a suspect, took her into custody and charged her with first-degree murder. The charge is an allegation, and the case remains under investigation.
The deadliest of the four incidents occurred just before 4 a.m. Sunday in the 10000 block of Ridge Creek Drive in the Steele Creek Division. Officers found four people with apparent gunshot wounds. Two were pronounced dead at the scene, while two others were taken to hospitals. Police identified those killed as Ariel Isaac Rodriquez-Pineda, 19, and a 16-year-old juvenile. Luis Martinez, 19, suffered life-threatening injuries, while another 16-year-old suffered injuries described by police as non-life-threatening.
CMPD said homicide detectives, crime scene investigators, victim services personnel, MEDIC and Charlotte Fire Department crews responded to the Ridge Creek Drive scene. Police had not announced an arrest or publicly identified a motive in that investigation by Sunday night. The department said the investigation remained active and that additional information would be released as it became available.
The four fatal shootings were part of a broader stretch of violence investigated by authorities over the weekend. Police also responded to a separate incident on Westpark Drive near a hotel. MEDIC told WSOC-TV that four people were taken to hospitals with serious injuries, although the agency said one person had been shot. Additional details about what injured the other people or the circumstances of that incident had not been publicly confirmed. That case was separate from the four shootings that accounted for the five deaths.
Police had not announced evidence showing that the fatal shootings were connected. Investigators continued working the High Meadow Lane, Simril Court, Altliff Court and Ridge Creek Drive cases Sunday, with Cole’s arrest in the Altliff Court killing the only publicly announced murder charge among the four investigations at that point.
Author note: Last updated October 25, 2026.