CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After a frightening shooting disrupted Concord’s annual Christmas Tree lighting ceremony Friday night, many families are still processing what happened while Charlotte is preparing for its next major holiday event, the Novant Health Thanksgiving Eve Parade.

Families return to the tree lighting site

For families like the Polleys and the Drovinas, Concord’s Christmas tree has always been a heartwarming symbol of the season. But this week, they returned under very different circumstances stepping back into downtown just days after gunfire scattered crowds and injured four people, including two of the suspects.

Amy Polley says she instantly recognized the danger as people began running.

“We just knew because we had seen it so much on television and in the movies,” Polley

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