Charlotte man accused of shooting near school bus is sentenced
A Charlotte man accused of stealing a state trooper’s rifle and hours later using it in a “drug turf” shootout that sent bullets through a school bus was sentenced to nine years in prison Thursday.
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Paris Lewis-Bynum, 21, was in 2023 convicted of speeding to elude arrest and ordered not to have a gun. In August 2024, he had a gun and was sentenced to two years probation. Four months later, on Dec. 16, 2024, he was accused of stealing an N.C. Highway Patrolman’s rifle and hours later using it in a four-person “drug turf” shooting near the intersection of W.T. Harris Boulevard and Albemarle Road.
The east Charlotte shooting left church and school bus windows shattered and children crying. County court records say Lewis-Bynum’s bullets did not hit the bus.
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Lewis-Bynum pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in March to his federal charges of illegally having a gun and using it to help traffic drugs. He also was charged in Mecklenburg County Superior Court with having a stolen car, having a gun as a felon and using that gun to try to kill someone.
That county case detailed how he stole the trooper’s gun, but those allegations were never proven. Mecklenburg prosecutors dropped their case against him, saying they couldn’t prove he did not act in self-defense and that they expected a judge to hand down a lengthy sentence in his federal case.
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