Monroe police officers responded to the 600 block of Skywatch Lane at approximately 10:20 p.m. yesterday after gunshots struck a home multiple times, leaving residents once again shaken on a street that has already endured two years of gun violence. No injuries were reported, but investigators say witnesses reported seeing a black vehicle circling the neighborhood just before the shots rang out.
According to WSOC TV, investigators are still working to determine the circumstances surrounding the shooting and to identify those responsible. The Monroe Police Department is asking anyone with video footage from the area to contact the department at 704-282-4700. As reported by WCNC, multiple neighbors reported seeing the suspicious black vehicle circling the block right before the gunfire began, though it remains unclear whether investigators have obtained surveillance footage of the vehicle or believe the shooting is connected to any prior neighborhood rivalry.
A Street With a Violent Recent Past
Thursday's shooting is not the first time gunfire has struck this stretch of Skywatch Lane. The same block was the site of a drive-by shooting on June 23, 2025, when multiple assailants got out of a vehicle and fired into two homes, according to the station's earlier report. During that incident, a 16-year-old suspect was critically injured by accidental gunfire from an accomplice.
Monroe detectives eventually arrested two teenagers in connection with that 2025 shooting: 17-year-old Maseon Ja'marcus Jackson, taken into custody in June 2025, and 16-year-old Jaquarious Isiah Watts, arrested the following month. Both were charged as adults with discharging a firearm into an occupied residence, per the same account. Under North Carolina General Statute § 14-34.1, willfully discharging a firearm into an occupied dwelling is classified as a Class D felony, a statute detailed by the UNC School of Government.
A Family Already Marked by Tragedy
The trauma on this block runs deeper still. A mother living on Skywatch Lane whose home was struck in the June 2025 drive-by had previously lost her 12-year-old son, Messiah Barrino, to a stray bullet during a neighborhood fight outside the home in December 2024, according to WSOC TV's earlier coverage. It remains unknown whether Thursday's shooting struck that same residence or a different home on the block, and police have not said whether they suspect any connection between the two incidents.
The 600 block of Skywatch Lane sits within the Southwinds subdivision, off South M.L.K. Jr. Boulevard near Waxhaw Highway. Monroe, the county seat and largest municipality in Union County, had an estimated population of 40,054 residents in 2026, according to USAFacts. State crime data compiled by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation show the Monroe Police Department reported 192 aggravated assaults and 32 robberies among 1,555 total index crimes in 2024.
Department Already Stretched Thin
Thursday's shooting also lands during a busy stretch for Monroe police, who were already investigating an officer-involved shooting on Alda Drive four days earlier, as Hoodline previously reported. Chief William “Rhett” Bolen took command of the department in April 2025, succeeding retiring chief J. Bryan Gilliard to lead a force of more than 100 sworn officers and support staff.
For now, the circumstances behind Thursday's gunfire remain under investigation, and no arrests have been announced. Anyone with information or video footage from the area is urged to contact Monroe police as detectives try to determine whether this latest shooting is linked to the string of violence that has already scarred the same stretch of Skywatch Lane.
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