Deeaudrey Copeland, 46, a Black male, was shot on the evening of Saturday, May 24, 2025, during Memorial Day weekend in north Charlotte. According to investigators and early reports, two people inside a dark red sedan were struck by gunfire around 8:30 p.m. near West Sugar Creek Road and Reagan Drive. With windows shattered, the car continued several blocks to a convenience store on the 4000 block of North Graham Street, where officers and Medic responded.
Copeland was taken to a hospital and later died of his injuries; the second victim was expected to recover.
Local outlets and public records marked the killing as one of several violent incidents that weekend. Memorial postings and obituaries that followed identified him by name and age and noted the date of his death, underscoring the shock to family and friends as detectives canvassed the area for surveillance footage and witnesses.
Within days, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department announced an arrest. On May 29, 2025, officers took 29-year-old Malcom Smith into custody in connection with the shooting that killed Copeland and injured the second occupant of the vehicle. Smith was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to inflict serious injury, and multiple counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. Authorities linked the charges to the same North Graham Street scene first described by responders on May 24.
Investigators’ timeline centers on the burst of gunfire at West Sugar Creek and Reagan Drive and the desperate drive that ended at the convenience store on North Graham, where the case shifted from an assault with life-threatening injuries to a homicide investigation. Police continue to direct anyone with additional information to Crime Stoppers as the case moves through the courts.
