Up to 200 cars swarmed the parking lot of Faith City Church in Huntersville over the weekend, with surveillance video showing drivers performing burnouts, a person using a machete to send sparks across the pavement, and gunshots ringing out across the property. By morning, the pastor found bullet casings scattered on the ground and a fence post knocked over where the crowd had forced its way in.
Senior Pastor Amere May Sr. said the chaos marked the fourth time his church’s grounds have been overrun this way, and the second time since last Wednesday alone. As reported by WSOC-TV, the church sent its surveillance footage to the station, and the recordings captured both muzzle flashes and the sound of gunshots during the gathering. May believes teens are behind each of the takeovers that have hit his property.
“We deserve better,” May said, describing a congregation that simply wants to use its own parking lot without fear. He said residents in the area just want to enjoy the weather and their lives without being shot at, and that the church now feels vulnerable every time a crowd assembles.
Pattern Echoes Birkdale Village Disturbances
The Faith City incidents aren’t happening in isolation. Takeovers have also struck Birkdale Village, the Huntersville shopping and entertainment district that made headlines in February when it enforced a 6 p.m. weekend curfew for unaccompanied minors after a viral gathering of 200 to 300 youths swarmed roadways and danced atop trapped vehicles, according to WCNC. The problem resurfaced in August, when Huntersville Police had to order a crowd of roughly 300 young people to disperse from the same shopping center, per the Carolina Journal…