Charlotte-area business leader shot on a boat on Lake Norman, chamber CEO says

A longtime Charlotte-area commercial real estate broker and community leader remained hospitalized in serious and stable condition Wednesday, three days after he was shot on a boat on Lake Norman, the head of the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday.

“Our prayers go out to his family, and I hope for a speedy recovery,” chamber CEO and president Bill Russell said of the victim, whom he identified as Tom McMahon.

Iredell County sheriff’s investigators arrested and charged a man and two women in the case, according to a sheriff’s office news release on Monday that didn’t name the victim.

“We are not naming him due to his condition and the potential for additional charges in this case,” the sheriff’s office said in an email attached to the news release. The email said the victim is in his late 50s and was in serious condition at a local trauma center.

The arrests stemmed from a reported kidnapping Sunday morning on Perth Road near Troutman “that developed into a shooting investigation,” according to the sheriff’s office email.

Just before 4:30 a.m. Sunday, sheriff’s investigators arrived at the scene of the reported kidnapping a minute and 13 seconds after the call came in, according to the sheriff’s office news release.

The kidnapping was said to have occurred in the 1100 block of Perth Road, the sheriff’s office said. The address released by the sheriff’s office on Monday matches that of the Safe Harbor Skippers Landing marina, according to public records.

A woman who answered the phone at the marina on Wednesday told the Observer that the victim “was not one of our customers” and the boat “was not one of our boats.”

In a text reply to questions from the Observer, Sheriff Darren Campbell said the incident wasn’t random. Campbell said he would try to provide more details on Thursday morning, including confirmation of the victim’s name, age and updated condition and what the sheriff’s office meant by “kidnapping,” when no such charges were filed. As of 7 p.m. Thursday, the sheriff had not provided an update to the Observer.

Public records show McMahon is 58 and lives in a $1.5 million lakefront home about 4 miles from where he was shot. Troutman is roughly 35 miles north of Charlotte.

Commercial real estate success

Russell said McMahon chaired the chamber’s business growth committee in the early 2000s and, with other business leaders, helped create the Lake Norman Economic Development Corp., Russell said. The nonprofit corporation works to attract businesses and industries to towns on the lake.

McMahon has closed more than 1,000 commercial real estate transactions in a career of more than 25 years, his LinkedIn profile shows.

He began in commercial real estate after 17 years as a quality control inspector at the former USAirways, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He spent 22 years as CEO and managing director of Cornelius-based Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate Advisors, where he earned the Achiever Award for closing 22 transactions valued at $20 million in 2006, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.

McMahon founded Cornelius-based Newport Commercial in December 1998 and owned the firm until 2003 , when he became managing director of SVN Commercial Real Estate in Charlotte, his LinkedIn profile shows. He worked at SVN until 2021, the year he joined Lake Norman Realty Inc. as a commercial broker.

Lake Norman Realty president Abigail Jennings couldn’t be reached Wednesday.

Suspects from Charlotte, Las Vegas

Sheriff’s investigators saw “two females and a male standing in the parking lot near the walkway leading to the pier,” according to the sheriff’s office news release.

“As the deputies approached the three, the male told them there was another person on a boat who was shot,” according to the release. “While gathering additional information, the deputies went to the area where the boats were tied up and located a male with two gunshot wounds.”

Deputies found a semiautomatic pistol, three loaded magazines and a bag containing additional items in the parking lot, according to the release, which didn’t specify the items found in the bag.

“The scene was secured and Iredell County EMS arrived and took the gunshot victim to an area trauma center for emergency treatment and surgery,” sheriff’s investigators said in the release.

Deputies charged 30-year-old Charlotte resident Markis Allan Kirkpatrick with felony assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill, and felony conspire to sell or deliver a schedule II controlled substance, according to the release. Kirkpatrick was jailed on $75,000 secured bond.

Andiaye Jahriziyah Tyler, a 22-year-old Charlotte resident, was charged with felony conspire to sell or deliver a schedule II controlled substance and misdemeanor prostitution. She was jailed on a $10,000 secured bond, according to the release.

Keishari Chanel-Wicks Johnson, a 29-year-old resident of Las Vegas, was charged with felony conspire to sell or deliver a schedule II controlled substance and misdemeanor conspire prostitution. She was jailed on $10,000 secured bond.

This is a developing story.