Charlotte’s troubled teens need solutions.
Youth crime is skyrocketing across our community, and on Monday, Charlotte city leaders tried to come up with ways to stop the violence.
By Channel 9′s count, just this year, six shootings have involved teenagers under 18. Of those cases, three have died.
Community Crisis: Kids and Crime
The most recent of those was last week, when 17-year-old Melakah Corbette was gunned down in west Charlotte . He was a student at Julius Chambers High School.
Shootings involving teens are one reason some council members on the Housing, Safety and Community Committee met Monday. They were tasked with coming up with new strategies or policies to try to reduce juvenile crime.
But leaders were not able to make any policy recommendations Monday. They understand how big of a problem teen crime is and realized it would take time.
Last year, more than 3,000 juveniles were arrested for crimes. That includes violent crimes like homicides, robberies, assaults. Of those arrests, 1,700 involved repeat juvenile offenders. That’s 700 more repeat juvenile offenders than in 2022.