704 Unfiltered

Five people are dead after a murder-suicide in High Point.

High Point police responded to the 2700 block of Mossy Meadow Drive to find a man and a woman screaming for help around 7:00 a.m. Saturday. 

"Officers did force entry into the home and went through the home in what we call a protective sweep, to check for victims and anyone in the home. They ended up locating three juveniles that were deceased and two adults that were deceased," said Captain Matt Truitt with the High Point Police Department.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/5-dead-after-murder-suicide-on-mossy-meadow-dr-in-high-point/83-e3643e9d-a98b-4956-a9cf-4e55482224d6

The Iredell County Sheriff's Office reports 22 people were arrested in both the later part 2022 and the start of 2023 for drug charges, characterizing those arrested as drug dealers.

The sheriff's office shared a post on Facebook on Friday, which included the mugshots of the people deputies had arrested. The post noted most of those arrested had criminal histories, with 10 suspects on probation when they were arrested and another two identified as gang members.

Deputies said all suspects were caught after selling drugs to an undercover investigator.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/drug-arrests-iredell-county-nc/275-51c78a8a-676d-48c0-9b52-6a5b6f7d7d76

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

The South Carolina ban on abortions after cardiac activity is no more after the latest legal challenge to the state's 2021 law proved successful.

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the restrictions violate the state constitution’s right to privacy. The measure banned abortions after cardiac activity is detected, typically around six weeks into a pregnancy, with exceptions for those caused by rape and incest or endangering the patient’s life.

Plus, Carolyn Bruck connects the dots on how a deadly plane crash in Charlotte 20 years ago forever changed air travel in the United States. It's the story of Air Midwest Flight 5481, which resulted in safety changes that are implemented for every flight across the country.

And finally, Friday is National Take Down Your Christmas Tree Day. It sounds silly, but it's a thing, we promise. And while most folks who bought a real tree will throw it out or recycle theirs ... a viral article has another suggestion: Eating it! But can you actually do that? Meghan Bragg sets the record straight in this morning's VERIFY fact check.

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

An off-duty Ranlo police officer who shot and killed a suspect who stabbed him multiple times during a dispute in Gaston County has been charged with first-degree murder, according to a press release from the town of Ranlo.

Ranlo police responded to a reported stabbing and shooting at a home on Burlington Avenue a little after 2 a.m. on New Year's Day, the town of Ranlo said in a press release. When officers arrived, they determined an off-duty Ranlo police officer, now identified as Kwaku Riley Agyapon, shot and killed a person after being stabbed multiple times.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/gaston-county-ranlo-officer-kills-stabbing-suspect-domestic-dispute/275-04dcf163-4993-47b9-8fe0-c91ca1d4c08a

The Charlotte Zoning Committee voted Wednesday to recommend approval of the Cotswold Chick-fil-A’s plans to expand its drive-thru. The vote brings the proposal a step closer to becoming reality. 

The petition for a larger drive-thru has gotten a lot of attention from the community – some hoping it’ll help with traffic backups around the restaurant, while others worry it'll only attract more cars. 

After hearing concerns from residents, the Cotswold Chick-fil-A has adjusted its plans to include a walk-up order window and outdoor patio. City staff are calling the new plans more pedestrian and driver-friendly. 

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/traffic/cotswold-chick-fil-a-closer-expanding-drive-thru/275-c7256039-c48a-42ff-8271-96fe7125ae64

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

Three people are dead after scaffolding collapsed at a construction site just outside of Uptown Charlotte Monday morning, the Charlotte Fire Department reports. 

Fire officials said the incident happened in the 700 block of E. Morehead Street, which is near the intersection of Morehead Street and Euclid Avenue on the south side of Interstate 277.

Officials said two other men -- ages 36 and 49 -- were transported to Atrium CMC hospital with minor injuries.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/construction-accident-charlotte-nc/275-5b9aed5c-901a-4801-906e-b72dbec61a3b

A sexual assault survivor is pushing for North Carolina to address its backlogs in evidence collection kits so she can hopefully get justice after she says she was raped.

Sexual assault evidence collection kits are used to recover DNA from a victim after an assault in hopes of leading to an arrest. Witlee Ethan said she can’t bring her abuser to justice because her kit is held up in the state’s crime lab. 

Witlee went to the Cornelius Town Hall to urge the town council and police to help her. She shared that she was held hostage and raped multiple times in Cornelius in January 2020 but her abuser is walking free partly due to the backlog in test kits.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/sexual-assault-survivor-calling-on-north-carolina-to-address-its-backlog-in-evidence-collection-kits-witlee-ethan-cornelius/275-05150597-119d-4a05-abce-d56ab32cff67

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

The new Congress opens with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy grasping for his political survival, with the potential to become the first nominee for speaker in 100 years to fail to win initial support from his own colleagues in a high-stakes vote for the gavel.

Lawmakers convene Tuesday to a new era of divided government as Democrats relinquish control of the House after midterm election losses. While the Senate remains in Democratic hands, barely, House Republicans are eager to confront President Joe Biden’s agenda after two years of a Democratic Party monopoly on power in Washington.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/nation-world/congress-house-speaker/507-f60d0de6-7c4b-4348-9814-0a243e2644d6

Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) got the green light for the planned LYNX Silver Line in April 2021 but after taking a closer look, engineers are going back to the drawing board. 

The agency is looking at changing two major parts of the Silver Line after running into technical problems with planning. The first change would be where the train stops near Bojangles Coliseum. The second is where the line will go through Uptown.  

The new train system will be 29-miles long from Belmont to Union County.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/traffic/cats-proposing-changes-lynx-silver-line/275-51a71612-e5c6-426b-9e06-68cbf97ec57b

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

The search for Madalina Cojocari, the missing 11-year-old girl from Cornelius, North Carolina, continues. Her mother, Diana Cojocari, and stepfather, Christopher Palmiter, have been in custody for nearly two weeks now. They’re both facing felony charges of failure to report a missing child.

Cornelius Police said they’ve chased 250 leads in their worldwide investigation but otherwise, few details have been released.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/investigations/search-warrant-madalina-cojocari-home-not-available-public/275-f97288c4-0a7f-4171-92e3-c02f1f38503a

An off-duty Ranlo police officer who shot and killed a suspect who stabbed him multiple times during a dispute in Gaston County has been charged with first-degree murder, according to a press release from the town of Ranlo.

Ranlo police responded to a reported stabbing and shooting at a home on Burlington Avenue a little after 2 a.m. on New Year's Day, the town of Ranlo said in a press release. When officers arrived, they determined an off-duty Ranlo police officer, now identified as Kwaku Riley Agyapon, shot and killed a person after being stabbed multiple times.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/gaston-county-ranlo-officer-kills-stabbing-suspect-domestic-dispute/275-04dcf163-4993-47b9-8fe0-c91ca1d4c08a

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

Clinics and hospitals have been slammed with flu patients for the last several months, and now doctors are starting to see some more COVID-19 circulating. 

The full impact holiday gatherings had on viral spread won’t be obvious for a few more weeks but Thanksgiving did lead to an increase in flu and COVID-19 cases.

There are at least two dozen different variants of COVID-19 spreading in Mecklenburg County. The latest data shows Omicron subvariant BQ.1.1 is the most dominant.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/health/holidays-impacting-viral-spread-health/275-06b318c8-d619-4622-a2c9-d3cde63af0a3

Southwest Airlines said it expects to return to normal operations Friday after more than a week of widespread flight cancellations that started with a winter storm and spiraled out of control because of a breakdown with staffing technology.

If Thursday turns out to be the last day of the Southwest crisis, it will be marked by about 2,350 canceled flights, nearly 60% of the airline's schedule.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/nation-world/southwest-flight-chaos-continues/507-3a4befa3-7465-4f95-87df-a2ecc195ca67

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

A growing number of government entities continue to ban TikTok from work devices as concerns grow over the app's security issues.

The city of Charlotte has joined the list of these entities and is planning to completely remove TikTok from all city devices by Jan. 6, 2023. According to a city of Charlotte spokesperson, the move is due to a warning from the FBI about potential national security concerns associated with the app. 

City of Charlotte officials blocked TikTok on the city's network on Dec. 21 and notified employees that the app would be removed from city devices in the near future. 

In an audit on Wednesday, officials found that many users still had TikTok downloaded on their city devices. TikTok will be remotely removed from these devices if the app is not removed by Jan. 6. Employees can submit an exception to this rule if they believe they have a valid business reason for using TikTok.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/tiktok-banned-on-charlotte-city-employee-work-phones-nc-lawmakers-call-on-gov-cooper-to-do-the-same-jason-saine-jon-hardister-north-carolina-security/275-ebaf3729-6a17-48fd-8bac-468dfd0df8e8

An assault that was reported to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department earlier in December appears to have been recorded and uploaded to social media.

CMPD's incident report said the victim was hit in the face by a suspect on Dec. 16, 2022, just outside of Seoul Food in the South End neighborhood of Charlotte. The report said the victim did not know the suspect.

A surveillance camera caught footage of the incident. An Instagram post from a woman claiming to be the victim's fiancé said two men who appeared to be drunk started shouting at the victim before one of the men punched the victim in the face.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/south-end-seoul-food-assault-charlotte-nc-crime-local/275-52e31285-d3a1-4f7a-9d90-567fed630fce

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

A Rowan County college is mourning the loss of a basketball player who died in a car crash on Monday.

Eric Henderson, 21, a Livingstone College sophomore who played on the team's basketball team, died in a crash on Monday in Cumberland County, N.C. 

Investigators told WRAL that Henderson's car crossed the center line and hit a pickup truck driven by an off-duty Cumberland County deputy on U.S. Highway 13 just north of Fayetteville. Speed is believed to be a factor in the crash. The involved deputy was injured but is expected to recover.

Family members said Henderson was on his way back to college after a Christmas visit, according to WRAL.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/he-was-the-ultimate-student-athlete-livingstone-college-basketball-player-dies-in-car-crash-eric-henderson-rowan-county-fayetteville-crash-fatal/275-d9d03159-9917-4063-9a41-4c0e2ea5ba3e

The Mega Millions jackpot has reached an estimated $565 million for Tuesday night's drawing. Will somebody go into the new year half a billion dollars richer, or will the latest huge lottery prize keep growing? 

The winning numbers for the Tuesday, Dec. 27 Mega Millions drawing were 9-13-36-59-61 and Mega Ball 11.

The jackpot was last won on Oct. 14, with 20 drawings going by since then without a big winner. The $565 million prize is for the annuity option, which is paid out annually over 29 years. The cash option would pay $293.6 million. 

It's been a record-setting year for lottery games — even Tuesday's full prize pales in comparison to the $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot won in November by someone in Southern California. 

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/nation-world/mega-millions-winning-numbers-tuesday-dec-27-2022/507-da322794-3029-4bf2-8663-95d7419fa303

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT! 

A Gastonia community is heartbroken after a devastating fire destroyed a local church on Christmas day. 

Throughout the day several people stopped by The Place Church, some of who are church members and community members to see the ruins. Many say they are just shocked to see the church building just gone.

Pastor Ronald Duncan said their church family is trying to wrap their heads around this loss but he is confident they will get through this.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/gastonia-church-suffers-fire-on-christmas-investigation-underway-north-carolina-the-place-church-fire-department-marshal/275-985252b4-2ae4-456b-99ab-1ed62022c138

As the Carolina Panthers are making a late-season push for their first playoff appearance since 2017, they've decided to sign a player who has helped them get there in the past.

On Monday, the Panthers signed cornerback Josh Norman to the team's practice squad. Norman was recruited to work out with the team on Monday after starting cornerback Jaycee Horn suffered a wrist injury in Saturday's win over the Detroit Lions.

Panthers fans should be familiar with Norman. He spent the first four seasons of his career (2012-2015) with Carolina and was a big part of the defense that pushed the team to Super Bowl 50 in the 2015 season.

READ MORE: https://www.wcnc.com/article/sports/nfl/panthers/panthers-reunite-with-josh-norman-former-all-pro-cb-signs-to-practice-squad-jaycee-horn-carolina-north-carolina-cornerback-defense-steve-wilks/275-150da4bd-9743-472b-97f2-44eda910945d

Watch Wake Up Charlotte each weekday morning from 4:30 to 7 a.m. on WCNC Charlotte, and as always, join the conversation on social media using #WakeUpCLT!