On October 14, 2024, at about 7 a.m., Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers conducting a welfare check in the 3600 block of North Sharon Amity Road in Charlotte found 25-year-old Jose Antonio Mejia-Gaona behind a Captain D’s restaurant with an apparent gunshot wound. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

CMPD detectives later identified 41-year-old Julio Cesar Chacon Venegas as a suspect. On October 19, 2024, Venegas was located and arrested near San Antonio, Texas, after coordinated efforts involving the Texas Department of Public Safety—Texas Rangers, Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, and Elmendorf Police Department. Venegas has been charged with murder and is awaiting extradition to Mecklenburg County; the investigation remains active.

Anyone with information about Mejia-Gaona’s death is asked to contact CMPD’s Homicide Unit at 704-432-TIPS or submit anonymous tips to Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or via their website. Did anyone in the Charlotte area see or hear anything around North Sharon Amity Road that morning?