Another Friday Night in Chalotte Another Homicide

A 21-year-old was found fatally shot at an East Charlotte apartment complex early Saturday morning.

Around 3:30 this morning Charlotte-Mecklenburg police responded to 2520 Lanecrest Drive, off Milton Road where they found Dantonio Gerrick Hamilton in the parking lot of an apartment complex. Officers determined that the victim had been shot and paramedics pronounced him dead at 3:43 a.m.

Dantonio Gerrick Hamilton

Witnesses described the suspect as a black male with short dreadlocks, wearing a black T-shirt and jean shorts. He was last seen fleeing toward Barringer Road.

According to MCSO records Hamilton was charged with murder in the death of 20-year-old Devon Clement, who was gunned down in front of dozens of people at a Cook-Out restaurant on West Sugar Creek Road in May of 2010. Hamilton and two others were arrested in the case. Prosecutors said the only gunshot that struck Clement was fired by another suspect, Cherelle Griffin. She pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder.

Last November, Hamilton pleaded guilty to discharging a gun into occupied property. He was sentenced to 25-39 months in prison, but that sentence was suspended pending his successful completion of three years on supervised probation.