CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A new search warrant details how local and federal authorities connected two separate violent crimes in Charlotte that ultimately led to an arrest.
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Tyson Lee Corpening, 36, was taken into custody by CMPD’s SWAT team and the FBI on Monday, Dec. 5, and charged with the following:
- Attempted murder
- Assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury
- Two counts of ethnic intimidation
- Damage to property
- Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
- Threat of mass violence on educational property
Corpening is accused of shooting and injuring a park ranger and threatening a Charlotte daycare several days later, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.
According to a newly released search warrant, the first crime occurred on Sunday, Nov. 27, at the Friendship Sportsplex located at 2310 Cindy Lane.
CMPD officers received a 911 call for urgent assistance in the area. A Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Ranger, identified as Patrick O’Neal Barringer, called emergency services saying he had been shot in his leg.
He was eventually taken to Atrium Health-Main for his injuries.
CMPD detectives were able to meet with Barringer while he was receiving treatment at the hospital. Barringer told detectives he had been a park ranger in the area for about seven months. He said he clocked in at 2:30 p.m. that Sunday and gave a full timeline of his day.
Barringer said he had arrived at Friendship Park in his work truck about ten minutes before the shooting occurred. He said he pulled into the parking lot, which looked empty.
Barringer told detectives that he went to unlock the left gate when a 5’11”, medium-build man, wearing a blue puffy jacket with the hood over his head, and a bandana covering his nose and mouth, jumped out from behind a bush. The ranger said the man fired one shot, striking him in the right leg, dropped a note, and then ran through the park towards I-77.
Barringer said that he dropped his radio, fell to the ground, and hit his emergency button. He said that people on the radio were confused as to where he was located, so he called 911 on his cell phone. Barringer said that he was then taken to the hospital and called his sister.
Crime scene investigators were able to collect a discharged cartridge casing and a projectile from the crime scene, the warrant states.
Several days later, on Monday, Dec. 5, at 8:42 a.m., the second crime was reported just down the street from Friendship Park, at Marizetta Kerry Child Development Center located at 3301 Beatties Ford Road.
Once at the scene, CMPD officers located a damaged classroom door with broken glass. Inside the classroom, officers found a rock that was wrapped in plastic. Inside of the plastic was a handwritten note, the warrant states.
CMPD said the note was written on similar paper with similar handwriting as the park ranger shooting incident, just days before.
The note stated that “kids will be killed within the next 24 hours.” The note also mentioned killing minorities, CMPD said. The note mentioned details about the previous note located during the Nov. 27th shooting involving the park ranger.
CMPD officers reviewed surveillance footage from the Child Development Center. Video captured the rock being thrown into the building on Saturday, Dec. 3, just after 11 p.m.
The Charlotte FBI assisted CMPD with researching details written on both notes. The FBI was able to locate a report in Florida that matched the details written in both notes, the warrant states.
Detectives then researched the details given by the FBI in Charlotte Police reporting databases.
A report was then located where Tyson Lee Corpening reported receiving a note at an apartment located on McAllister Drive that contained details from the notes recovered on Nov. 27 and Dec. 5. His address located on McAllister Drive is in close proximity to both crimes, CMPD said.
CMPD issued a search warrant on Corpening’s apartment on McAllister Drive, stating there was probable cause that an ‘assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury’ had been committed and that evidence was contained within the apartment.
Corpening was labeled as a person of interest by CMPD prior to his arrest this week.
