Kanye Carter, an 18-year-old Black man from Roanoke, Virginia, was killed by gunfire in the early hours of June 24, 2023. Just after 1 a.m., patrol officers in the area of 10th Street and Shenandoah Avenue NW reported hearing shots and moved toward the sound. As they headed in, dispatch relayed a separate report of someone wounded near 15th Street and Orange Avenue NW.
Officers soon found Carter in the roadway with gunshot wounds, in the vicinity of 15th and Orange, and rushed him to the hospital, where he died.
Investigators placed the shooting in the 1700 block of Melrose Avenue NW, only a short distance from a community center. Police said they believed the violence followed an argument that had erupted beforehand, and they worked the scene while trying to trace where the confrontation began and who was nearby when it turned deadly. Even as officers gathered evidence and appealed for help from anyone who might have seen or heard something, officials said no suspects were located at the scene and no arrests had been made.
In the days that followed, court records added a sharper outline to the final moments leading up to the shooting. Roanoke City Circuit Court documents reviewed by WDBJ7 indicated police planned to search Carter’s Instagram account because he had been on Instagram Live arguing with at least one person before the gunfire. Investigators believed the online dispute spilled into the real world, leading to a fight immediately before shots were fired. Despite that developing trail, the reporting at the time said no one had been arrested.
That same morning, another burst of gunfire sent two more people to the hospital from a separate location in Roanoke, but police said they did not believe the incidents were connected. While the city tried to carry on—with a gun buyback event set for later that day, just blocks away—the loss hardened into grief for those closest to Carter. A death notice published in the Roanoke Times listed arrangements through Serenity Funeral Home and Cremation Services, with a visitation and funeral service held on July 1, 2023.
