James Randall Martindale, a 68-year-old male, spent his Saturday afternoon on October 18, 2025, outside the Food Lion in the 5600 block of North Graham Street in Charlotte when an altercation unfolded near the storefront. Just after 4:45 p.m., shots were fired. First responders arrived to find Martindale suffering from multiple gunshot wounds; MEDIC pronounced him dead at the scene as officers sealed off the parking lot and homicide detectives began canvassing witnesses and nearby businesses
for surveillance footage.
Detectives said early evidence pointed to a confrontation that escalated into gunfire in front of the grocery store, a grim moment that came amid a violent 24-hour stretch in the city. By the following Monday, police identified a suspect and detailed the chain of events that led to Martindale’s death, while urging anyone with additional information to come forward to Crime Stoppers.
On October 20, authorities arrested 44-year-old Joshua Jontay Hasty in connection with the shooting. He was charged with involuntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a felon, and booked into the Mecklenburg County jail that evening. Records and local reports tied Hasty to the shooting that killed Martindale outside the Food Lion near West Sugar Creek Road, and investigators have not announced any additional suspects.
Martindale’s name and the date of his death were subsequently added to public rolls memorializing people lost to gun violence, reinforcing the timeline established by police and local outlets. The case, initiated under CMPD report 20251018-1649-00, remains under the purview of homicide detectives as they work to fill any remaining gaps in the narrative of what happened in those minutes before the fatal shots were fired.
