On the Friday evening of May 23, 2025, Black male, 16-year-old Jamariyae D.W. Dixon was shot during a burst of gunfire on Stroud Park Court in north Charlotte, where officers found three people wounded just before 5:30 p.m. He was rushed for treatment and, four days later on May 27, medical staff at Atrium Health pronounced the 16-year-old male dead. Police formally reclassified the case as a homicide and notified Jamariyae D.W. Dixon's next of kin.
Neighbors told reporters that a larger altercation spilled into the street, and investigators later confirmed that three people were struck, including a teenager who arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the ankle. Another young man survived catastrophic injuries; his mother recalled how he flatlined before doctors revived him, and how he remembered his 16-year-old friend, Jamariyae D.W. Dixon, holding his hand in those frantic moments.
As detectives worked the case, they secured video from the scene that helped them identify a suspect. By May 27–28, police had arrested 20-year-old Marion McKnight, interviewed him at the Law Enforcement Center, and transferred him to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff's Office. After Jamariyae D.W. Dixon, 16, died, charges were upgraded to murder; McKnight also faced attempted first-degree murder counts tied to the other wounded victims. The investigation remains active, with authorities asking anyone with information to contact homicide detectives.
News of Jamariyae D.W. Dixon's death, at just 16, echoed through Charlotte as local outlets and memorial pages marked the dates—shot on May 23 and gone on May 27—while community leaders pointed to the case as one more sign of a youth-violence crisis demanding action. Loved ones prepared funeral arrangements as the city absorbed the loss of a teenager whose name joined a growing ledger of gun violence victims.
