Crime

Charlotte City Manager Ron Carlee officially "banned the box" on Friday. Applicants for city jobs will now no longer see a question about prior convictions on the initial application. The exception will be for public safety jobs – like police officers or airport employees.

Applicants will be asked about criminal history much later in the process -- in some departments after several rounds of interviews.

Despite an uptick in 2013, the number of homicides in Charlotte-Mecklenburg remained near historic lows. But some neighborhoods continued to struggle with the violence that has plagued them for decades.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police investigated 58 homicides in 2013, six more than in 2012. Taken together, however, the last five years reflect a sustained decrease in killings.

Four homicides occurred within a block of each other along West Boulevard, near a former housing project notorious for crime.

 Bond was set for about $500,000 each for the Monroe couple charged with child abuse for allegedly handcuffing an 11-year-old boy by the ankle to their front porch. Dorian Harper and Wanda Larson -- a supervisor in the county's department of social services -- had their first court appearance in front of a Union County judge Monday morning. On Friday, an animal control officer found the child while responding to a complaint about a loose animal. While looking for the animal, he followed a trail that led to the child's secluded home.

In the last six days, there have been six fatal shootings in Charlotte. Five of them were homicides. Early Tuesday morning, 22-year-old Dominick Alexander was shot to death outside of a nightclub on Atando Avenue in north Charlotte. At a press conference Tuesday, CMPD Deputy Chief Kerr Putney said three of the homicides are suspected of being drug-related and none of them are connected to each other.