A guy is accused of stabbing another man on a major roadway in Charlotte, North Carolina, before taking many items from the victim, including his automobile.
Adam Mercado, 34, has been charged with first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon, according to Mecklenburg County court documents. The violent event happened on Thursday.
According to a criminal affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, a man dressed in a blue shirt and orange gloves came at a building on the 1100 block of Central Avenue in Charlotte at 2 p.m. that day, driving a brown Hyundai Sonata.
This individual is said to have been Mercado.
The defendant spots Gerald Barnes, 68, talks to him, and then “attempts to show the victim an item in his bookbag,” according to the court filing, which cites camera footage. When Barnes looks inside the bag, the violence starts.
“The male stabs him in the neck and then demands that he surrender his car keys,” the statement states. “The victim gives up his car keys, and the man stabs him several more times as he falls to the ground. The man then searches the victim’s pockets and grabs his wallet.”
Mercado allegedly got into Barnes’ Honda Fit and drove it over to the Sonata in which he came. “The male loads items into the Fit and then drives away,” officials reported.
When law enforcement police arrived at the building where Barnes was stabbed, they discovered him “suffering from multiple stab wounds.”
The person was pronounced deceased later that night. Detectives began their investigation, looking for the Honda Fit.
According to investigators, Mercado has been linked to several more deaths.
Officers were called on Friday to conduct a welfare check on a home in Monroe’s 2600 block of Nelda Drive, which is only 28 miles southeast of Charlotte.
There, Matthew Moody, 52, and James Wallace, 49, were discovered dead.
