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‘He’s trying to kill me.’ Video shows fight during shooting at Charlotte shopping center

A shooting and a brawl in the parking lot of a southwest Charlotte shopping center left one person seriously injured Tuesday morning, witnesses and officials said.

The shooting happened around 10:30 a.m. at Berewick Town Center off Steele Creek Road, just south of Interstate 485.

The fight started near a Harris Teeter store after the driver of a blue Chevrolet Tahoe SUV crashed into two other vehicles then rolled backwards, witnesses told The Charlotte Observer. Two men began arguing and fighting.

In this image from WSOC video, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police canine unit arrives at the scene of a shooting in southwest Charlotte on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022.

At least one person is in custody, according to Brian Alfano, a deputy commander with the U.S. Marshals Service. Deputies were in the Steele Creek area and assisted Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, Alfano told the Observer.

Video obtained by the Observer shows two individuals — one in a black hoodie, the other in red — fighting against the Tahoe then on the ground.

Both individuals are holding handguns as they struggle, according to the video.

“Did you hear the shot?” one witness can be heard asking.

One of the men in the fight pleads for help.

“He’s trying to kill me,” the man in the black hoodie yells at witnesses, the video shows.

The person in black tries to walk away but stumbles to the ground with a gunshot wound to his leg. A Charlotte firefighter, later identified as Michael Cunningham, pulls him away and toward a Charlotte Douglas International Airport fire vehicle.

A third individual then runs to the SUV and removes a gun. He raises the gun and chases after the individual in red, who had run toward the nearby Hampton Inn & Suites.

“Come here, come here before I shoot you,” the third individual can be heard yelling.

Just before 10:30 a.m. a plain-clothes police officer reported “shots fired” near a Harris Teeter at the shopping center and requested additional units, according to audio obtained by the Observer via Broadcastify.

Two “random guys” were shooting at one another before one chased the other toward the hotel, the officer says.

CMPD said a report had not been filed yet for the shooting.

The Charlotte Fire Department, in a news release, said Cunningham had just purchased groceries at Harris Teeter to prepare lunch for his colleagues when the shooting happened. He called 911 and provided medical care to the shooting victim, fire officials said.

“We are extremely proud of firefighter Michael Cunningham for answering the call to serve and for his heroic act,” the news release said.

In this image from WSOC video, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police hold a person in custody outside a Hampton Inn & Suites hotel after a shooting at a nearby shopping center on Berewick Town Center Drive on Tuesday, October 4, 2022.