3 Charlotte high school students hospitalized in crash just days after classmate shot

Three students are hospitalized after a Thursday crash near their Charlotte high school — the same school 14-year-old Johnnie McClendon attended before he was fatally shot in his home Sunday.

The crash happened in east Charlotte about a half-mile away from Garinger High School before 9:30 a.m., paramedics said. The “very serious wreck” shut down Shamrock Drive for about 0.3 miles from Finchley Drive to Glenville Avenue.

Four students — one junior and three sophomores — were in the car, school officials said. Three of the five total people involved in the crash were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, paramedics said.

“This is the second tragic incident our school has suffered in the past week,” wrote Garinger High School Principal LeDuan Pratt in an email to families Thursday afternoon. “What is most important is that we care for and support each other.”

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McClendon was shot and killed in his home near Camp North End and the Lockwood neighborhood on Sunday. Police charged 19-year-old Myhijee Major with involuntary manslaughter after he turned himself in Tuesday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department wrote in a news release.

McClendon had just made the basketball team, said Will Adams, an activist fighting to end gun violence among local youth with his organization TruBlue. It was McClendon’s first step in trying to follow Kyrie Irving’s famed legacy, Adams said.

Mothers of Murdered Offspring is holding a balloon release in his honor near Garinger’s gym at 3:30 p.m. Friday, the nonprofit posted to its social media.

In Mint Hill Monday, Rocky River high school student Jovanny Escamilla-Salina died in a morning crash about a mile away from his school.

Pratt said the Garinger community’s thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of all the students affected by Thursday’s crash, and counselors will be available to talk to any students in need of counseling.