‘It’s hard for me to sleep’: Fusion Lounge shooting survivor talks physical, emotional wounds
The Charlotte shooting left one person dead and three others injured.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Keifer Crafter’s physical wounds from last weekend’s shooting at the Fusion Lounge are easy to see.
His emotional scars are just as visible.
“It’s hard for me to sleep these past couple of days because I envision it happening to me,” Crafter said. “It’s devastating to me.”
Crafter says he was going to pick up his “uncle-in-law” La’Nard Gaddy at the lounge late Friday night. When he went inside, he saw Gaddy get into a “tussle” with someone Crafter says worked as a security guard at the club.
That fight then escalated into gunfire.
“He shot La’Nard twice, and then as I’m approaching him, he shot me, also twice,” Crafter said. “Then I dropped, and when I dropped he came back and shot La’Nard again.”
The shooting left Gaddy dead, and Crafter with bullet holes and a metal rod in his right leg. Crafter says that the rod will likely stay inside him for the rest of his life.
As Crafter and the rest of Gaddy’s friends and family are still reeling from this sudden death, some sense of justice came Monday afternoon as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said they arrested Jermone Laricky Planter for Gaddy’s murder.
“I was happy they at least got him and he wasn’t on the streets long,” Crafter said. “So he wouldn’t go out and hurt anyone else.”
Planter is charged with murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury (three counts), and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Crafter and Gaddy’s loved ones will take the next steps to heal physically and emotionally in the days ahead. He says Gaddy will be with them every step of the way.
“Sometimes I think that both me and him should’ve been gone that night,” Crafter said “I’d’ve rather went with him. But I guess God has other plans for me.”
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