School Employee Shot His Wife, Then Called 911

At approximately 2 a.m. on April 6, 2026, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police responded to a home on Cardington Court in north Charlotte following a 911 call. The caller was Eddie McCollum, 61, a teacher’s aide at Southwest Middle School. He told the dispatcher he had shot his wife. When officers arrived, they found 58-year-old Tammy McCollum with a gunshot wound. She died at the scene.

McCollum repeated the admission to detectives during an interview that followed - telling them he had shot Tammy during an argument - before asking for an attorney. He was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, according to NBC affiliate WBTV, and transported to the Mecklenburg County Jail.

A School Community Notified

Southwest Middle School principal sent a message to families the same evening, confirming that McCollum had been employed at the school and had been suspended with pay following his arrest, according to WBTV. The notification was brief and factual, offering no additional detail about the circumstances of the shooting.

McCollum had worked at the school as a teacher’s aide - a role that placed him in daily proximity to students and families. The school’s response was swift, reflecting the particular sensitivity of a criminal charge against an employee who worked directly with children. No students were present at the time of the incident, which took place in the early morning hours at the couple’s private residence.

Tammy McCollum

Tammy McCollum was 58 years old. She was killed inside her own home, during an argument, by the person she shared that home with. Court documents do not specify the nature of the dispute or what preceded it in the hours before the 911 call. What they establish is that when police arrived, they found a woman who was already gone.

The details available are spare, as they often are in the immediate aftermath of a domestic homicide: an address, a time, a wound, a death. What they represent - the end of a life, the particular brutality of violence within a home - carries a weight that the official record alone cannot fully hold.

A Case Built on the Suspect’s Own Words

What distinguishes this case procedurally is the nature of the evidence. McCollum did not wait for investigators to piece together what happened. He called 911 and said it himself. He repeated it to detectives. His own words, captured on a 911 recording and in a police interview, became the foundation of the first-degree murder charge filed against him.

Defense attorneys frequently advise clients against speaking to police without counsel present. McCollum did speak - twice - before invoking that right. What he said in those moments will almost certainly be a central element of any future proceedings.

What Comes Next

Eddie McCollum remained in custody as of the time of reporting, held at the Mecklenburg County Jail on the first-degree murder charge. No trial date has been set. The school district has not indicated any further comment beyond the initial notification to families.

For the neighborhood on Cardington Court, the school community at Southwest Middle, and the people who knew Tammy McCollum, the events of April 6 arrived without warning in the middle of the night - a domestic argument that ended in death, a 911 call that began with a confession, and a charge that now moves through the courts.

References: Teacher’s Aide Charged With Wife’s Murder in Charlotte Neighborhood | CMPD North Charlotte Homicide Investigation