5 Things to Know: Hundreds March Against ICE in Uptown

Hundreds March Against ICE in Uptown

A few hundred people gathered in front of the Charles R. Jonas Federal Building in Uptown’s Third Ward on Friday to stand in solidarity with the people of Minneapolis in protesting recent actions there by federal immigration agents, including the killings of Keith Porter Jr., Renee Good and Alex Pretti. 

The protest occurred on a day when organizers around the world called for a general strike of goods and services to show economic power in protesting the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as well as Customs and Border Protection (CBP), among other agencies. 

Before marching peacefully through Uptown, protesters heard from a slate of speakers including former Charlotte City Council rep Braxton Winston, now the president of the NC AFL-CIO. 

Winston called on those in attendance to continue showing up in opposition to unjust state actions and prepare for a day when they will have the opportunity to build the world they want to see. 

“We must show up with each other between the protests,” Winston said. “We have to have the vision for the day after we do win. How will we govern? How will we create a community whose culture is about dignity of the worker? How will we create a community whose culture is of embracing the stranger? How do we come up with a community of protecting the equal protections of rights under the law for all people? I know that folks out there are willing to do that but we have to hold ourselves to that task.” 

Kass Ottley, executive director of Seeking Justice Charlotte, listed the demands of the Minneapolis movement, including full investigations into the killings of Porter, Good and Pretti as well as the Department of Justice’s efforts to shield federal agents from accountability for their actions.

She also stated actions that Charlotte organizers are taking, which include calling on Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones and Mecklenburg County Manager Mike Bryant to ban all federal agents from city- and county-owned properties for the purposes of immigration operations. 

She added that organizers want Charlotte City Council to pass ordinances prohibiting federal agents from entering city-owned properties without a judicial warrant and from wearing masks while undertaking any law enforcement activity.  

Ottley reminded protesters on Friday that the death they’ve seen at the hands of state agents is nothing new. 

“Speaking as a Black woman, this has been going on in America for centuries for Black people and we have screamed about it, we have shouted about it, we’ve had videos about it and it fell on a lot of deaf ears,” Ottley said. “So if we’re going to be in this fight together, from this point forward, we’re going to fight like hell and we’re going to win.” 

Tiawana Brown to Plead Guilty in Wire Fraud Case 

Former Charlotte City Council rep Tiawana Brown has agreed to a plea deal that she says will see her avoid prison time related to federal charges of wire fraud related to COVID relief funds brought against her in May 2025. 

A federal court filing on Thursday showed that Brown will plead guilty to wire fraud conspiracy for obtaining $43,000 in federal relief funds through the Small Business Administration and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), as well as attempting to receive an additional $20,000.

The original indictment, announced by Russ Ferguson, US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, alleged that, between April 2020 and September 2021, before Brown was elected to Charlotte City Council, Brown and her two adult daughters schemed to obtain more than $124,000 in COVID pandemic relief funds using false documentation, then submitted false statements to obtain forgiveness of the PPP loans using fake and fraudulent tax forms, among other misrepresentations.

Instead of using the pandemic relief funds to pay for qualifying expenses as purported in the loan applications, the indictment alleges that the defendants used the proceeds on personal expenses, including allegedly spending around $15,000 on Tiawana’s 50th birthday party in 2021.

While the court filings did not include the details of the deal, Brown has publicly stated that she is not going to serve any prison time, writing on Facebook, “God’s Favor is #unbreakable. It’s sad some of y’all thought I was going to prison.”

Mecklenburg Municipalities Declare State of Emergency

In preparation for the winter storm that arrived in Charlotte on Saturday morning, Mecklenburg County and all seven of its separate municipalities issued a joint declaration of a State of Emergency on Friday, enacting the county’s Emergency Operations Plan. 

According to a Friday release, the plan’s priorities are to save lives; address immediate needs such as rescue, medical assistance, food and shelter; restore essential facilities for residents and visitors; and mitigate hazards that may threaten lives, property, the environment or the economy. 

The declaration mitigates price gouging by prohibiting any price increases on goods and services during the State of Emergency while also allowing for increased staffing for public safety and other city services to respond. 

The county has also activated its extreme weather protocols and expanded homeless shelter capacity beginning Friday afternoon and lasting at least until Monday morning. 

Hearts for the Invisible Charlotte Coalition will continue to deploy street outreach teams to homeless encampments to encourage anyone living unsheltered to visit one of the local shelters, which are expanding capacity through the weekend.

Matthews Fire Official Charged with Setting Fires

Matthews Fire Department battalion chief Peter Blaich was arrested after he allegedly set a fire inside the vacant building where Boston Market once operated on Independence Boulevard earlier this month, WBTV reported. 

Blaich’s crew responded to a call reporting the fire on Jan. 12, in which they found two fires within the building. The deputy fire marshal in charge of the investigation concluded that the fires were started by a human and were “suspicious,” as they did not match patterns of fires set by individuals without homes escaping the cold. Blaich had originally claimed that he chased some homeless folks off the property.  

Matthews Police Department said that, after a thorough and comprehensive investigation, the Mecklenburg County Magistrate’s Office determined that there was probable cause to charge Blaich with burning of certain buildings. He was arrested on Jan. 23. 

His motive remains unknown at this time, though the affidavit mentions that a firefighter working under Blaich was already suspicious of the battalion chief due to his potential involvement in a 2025 fire the crew responded to.

Woman’s Death Ruled Homicide, Boyfriend Charged

Investigators have now ruled that the case of a woman who was killed during an apparent argument with her boyfriend in northeast Charlotte who was murder and have charged her boyfriend. 

Shortly before 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 24, police were notified that 23-year-old Serenity Tate had arrived at a local hospital with a life-threatening injury. She later succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at the hospital. 

In the above map, black markers signify deaths by gun violence, green markers signify killings that may be deemed justified, red markers signify stabbings, yellow markers signify murder by vehicle, purple markers signify deaths by trauma or unknown cause, and blue markers signify police killings.

The incident that led to her death is believed to have occurred on Whistling Teal Drive in northeast Charlotte’s Mallard Lake neighborhood. While originally pursued simply as a death investigation, detectives deemed Tate’s death a homicide, arresting 26-year-old Demontrez Breelove and charging him with murder. 

As reported on Wednesday by the Charlotte Observer, an affidavit showed that investigators believe Tate was shot in the neck while tussling over a gun with Breelove, who was her boyfriend, during an argument.

Tate’s killing was one of six by gun violence recorded in Charlotte by Queen City Nerve in the first month of the year, including the shooting death of 26-year-old John Glenn Martinez in west Charlotte’s Reid Park neighborhood on Sunday night.