Alexander Cruz Martinez, 16, was shot inside the multilevel parking deck at the Metropolitan shopping center near the Target on Metropolitan Avenue in Charlotte on the evening of October 1, 2025. Officers were dispatched just before 8 p.m.; an off-duty Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer reached the deck quickly and found Alexander with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital and died of his injuries.

Investigators treated the deck as an active homicide scene, processing upper floors for shell casings and canvassing for surveillance and witnesses. Within days police arrested a 17-year-old who had also been wounded; because the suspect is a juvenile, no name was released. Charges announced included murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, felony conspiracy, and felony obstruction, and authorities said detectives believed the killing was tied to a robbery scenario rather than random violence.

An obituary posted by a local funeral service expressed the family’s grief in Spanish and English, and police asked anyone who saw or recorded the moments before the shooting to come forward. Did anyone see or have footage from the parking deck that night?