A 17-year-old West Charlotte High School student was shot and killed while attending a Halloween party in north Charlotte, and around a year after her death, no arrest has been made public. Amari Cooper had been expected to graduate in February, cap and gown already waiting, and left behind a 2-year-old daughter. Her family is now pleading for whoever pulled the trigger to come forward.
According to The Charlotte Observer, officers were called just after midnight to the 1600 block of Old Plank Road for a medical call and found a girl with a gunshot wound; she was taken to a hospital, where she died. A city of Charlotte case update, however, described the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Homicide Unit’s investigation as centered in the 6100 block of Old Plank Road in the North Division, according to a City of Charlotte notice. The discrepancy in block numbers between the two accounts has not been reconciled publicly.
Loved ones told WAVY that gunfire broke out shortly after Cooper, her younger sister and another girl arrived at the party by car. Cooper was shot and killed early that Saturday morning while attending the Halloween gathering, the station reported. A Newport News-based woman has since set up a GoFundMe to help cover funeral and other expenses, per the same report.
Family Says Someone at the Party Knows More
WBTV reported that friends and family gathered at Lakewood Park to release balloons in Cooper’s remembrance. Family friend Leondra Garrett told the station she believes someone who was at the party holds key information that could lead to an arrest, and that she hopes CMPD is actively pursuing the case. Garrett also said nearby residents had Ring cameras, and that police may have access to vehicle tag numbers and social media pages tied to the night of the shooting, according to WBTV.
Garrett remembered Cooper for her positivity, her energy and the way she cared for others, the station reported. Cooper is survived by her young daughter, and her mother has started a scholarship fund in her honor to support young girls seeking cosmetology school or help attending college, according to the same WBTV account.
Charlotte police have not released details on a suspect or motive, QC News reported, and CMPD has not announced any arrests in the case. Anyone with information about the unsolved homicide is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600; tipsters may remain anonymous, and those offering tips through the P3 Tips app may be eligible for a cash reward for information leading to an arrest.
A Citywide Pattern of Teens and Guns
Cooper’s death fits into a broader trend CMPD flagged in its midyear report. Department data cited by the Charlotte Observer showed teens with firearms rose from 31 incidents between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2025, to 49 during the same stretch in 2026, even as overall crime fell 16% over that period. Homicides, meanwhile, ticked up 3%, with 40 recorded so far in 2026 compared with 39 during the same months the year before, the newspaper reported.
The same report noted a 15% decrease in teens named as suspects in criminal incidents compared with the prior year’s figures, and said 28 teens had committed juvenile offenses with seven parents issued citations. For Cooper’s family, those citywide numbers offer little comfort while the specific question of who fired the shot that killed her remains unanswered.
