Police have charged a suspect in the killing of a newspaper carrier who was found shot to death early Wednesday near Romare Bearden Park in uptown Charlotte.
CMPD identified the suspect as Roger Best, 22.
Police said Best is responsible for the death of Walter “Wess” Scott Jr., 65, who had worked delivering newspapers in uptown Charlotte for more than 30 years.
Police found Scott lying in a street shortly after 2:20 a.m., when the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department got a call about an assault with a deadly weapon in the 300 block of W. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which is near the popular Romare Bearden Park and the Charlotte Knights baseball stadium. Paramedics pronounced Scott dead at the scene.
Best, who flagged down CMPD officers nearby and told them he had been shot, was charged with murder. He also was charged with attempted armed robbery and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Police did not say who shot Scott, who was being treated at Carolinas Medical Center for an injury described as non-life threatening.
Scott will be taken to county jail once he is released from hospital, CMPD said.
According to jail records, Best has been arrested at least seven times in Mecklenburg County, primarily for theft-related charges and parol violations.
