During the CIAA in February 2016 three men were accused of shooting at a uptown Charlotte hotel with an AK-47 and running from police, hence nearly ruining the party hyped weekend.
Howard Wright, 34, Kevin Thompson, 31, and Dereke Bolton, 36 were all prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Violent Crimes Team last week for the shooting. Two plead guilty and one was found not guilty.
In the early morning hours of February 28, 2016, multiple gunshots were fired outside the Hyatt Place Charlotte Hotel on South Caldwell Street. Two occupied motor vehicles and the hotel lobby were struck by gunfire. Nearby, an off-duty G4S officer saw a suspect running from the direction of the gunshots and saw a suspect get into a silver Nissan sedan.
Police stopped the vehicle shortly thereafter near a parking deck on West 5th Street. Upon stopping, Howard exited the vehicle and ran from officers with an AK-47 in his hand, dropping the AK-47 and a handgun as he fled. Officers captured Howard after a brief foot chase. Police also apprehended Kevin in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. Dereke was the front seat passenger.
Approximately 40-50 shots were fired into two vehicles and into the lobby door of the Hyatt Hotel.
Subsequent expert forensic analysis confirmed that the AK-47 and the handgun recovered from Howard were the weapons that discharged the shell casings discovered at the crime scene.
Howard pled guilty as charged and was sentenced to 120-168 months in prison
Kevin pled guilty and was sentenced to 29-47 months in prison.
Dereke was tried for 1) five counts of discharging a firearm into occupied property, 2) discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle in operation, 3) conspiracy to discharge a firearm into an occupied dwelling and 4) eight counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling. A jury found Dereke not guilty.
