CHARLOTTE, NC –
Three officers from a U.S. Marshals task force serving a warrant against a felon wanted for possession of a firearm were killed and five other officers were wounded in a shooting Monday at a North Carolina home, he said. police.
Some of the officers who responded to the Charlotte neighborhood to rescue the first wave of fallen officers were injured when a second shooter began shooting at them after the wanted man was killed, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said.
“Today we lost some heroes who were simply trying to keep our community safe,” Jennings said at a news conference.
After a three-hour standoff, the home in suburban Charlotte was vandalized. Armored vehicles crashed into it, tearing out windows and entire doors that were left broken. Several armored vehicles were parked in the yards, some with tree branches hanging from them.
The wanted suspect shot at the task force as they approached the home and the man was killed in the front yard, Jennings said. His name was not released, but the chief said he was wanted as a felon who illegally possessed a gun.
A second person then fired at the officers from inside the home where a high-powered rifle was found, Jennings added.
A woman and a 17-year-old boy were found in the house after the confrontation. The two are being questioned, Jennings said.
The Marshal’s Service confirmed that one of its agents was killed and did not release his name. Two officers with the state Department of Adult Corrections also died, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said. The governor was in Charlotte and speaking with the families of the killed and wounded officers.
Another member of the task force, made up of federal agents and other officers from across the region, was injured.
Four Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers who responded to the scene were shot while attempting to rescue the injured officers. One of them remains in critical condition, Jennings said.
Neighbors said the shooting lasted several minutes.
WSOC-TV said its helicopter captured an armored vehicle driving through yards and knocking over recycling bins before officers removed a person with blood on his shirt and then loaded him into an ambulance.
After the house was cleared, the helicopter pilot said he couldn’t show the front yard of the house because the scene was too graphic and disturbing.
“A lot of the questions that need to be answered, we don’t even know what they are right now,” Jennings said, somberly briefing reporters less than four hours after the shooting. “We need to fully understand why this occurred and also defend the integrity of the investigation.”
Many area roads, including Interstate 77, were closed so ambulances could get to hospitals faster. Television images showed ambulances speeding towards hospitals escorted by vehicles both in front and behind with their sirens blaring.
Rissa Reign was cleaning her house when she heard the first shots. There was a pause, then a second series of gunshots, then a third. She’s out.
“When we came out, there were no police, so the police started running, running, running, running in,” she said, adding that the armored SWAT trucks quickly followed her and “were passing through the grass, everything, and they started shooting.” . again.”
The neighborhood, of one- and two-story brick houses and small trimmed yards, is very safe, said Alex Rivera, who lives on a nearby street.
“I see like 50 police cars approaching and then I hear gunshots,” he said on the front porch of the house he shares with his cousin. “I was scared because a lot of things were happening.”
Another neighbor, William Cunningham, was moved to tears while sitting on his porch. He said he is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm but that he never expected such violence in his own neighborhood.
“Bless those officers and bless their families,” he said. “No one should be killed by a court order.”
Four Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools were closed around dismissal time in the afternoon, but that was lifted in the late afternoon, the district said.
Police urged people to stay away from the neighborhood and asked residents to stay inside their homes until the all-clear was given.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the shooting and spoke with Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles to express his condolences and support for the community.
The last marshal shot and killed in the line of duty was in November 2018. Chase White was shot in Tucson, Arizona, by a man wanted for stalking local law enforcement officers, the agency said.
The Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force is headquartered in Charlotte and is comprised of 70 federal, state and local agencies. Fugitive task forces are interagency collaborations to find and arrest criminal suspects.
In six years, the regional task force has apprehended more than 8,900 fugitives, the U.S. Marshals Service said on its website.
In March 2007, two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers were killed while responding to a domestic dispute by someone not directly involved in the fight. Demeatrius Antonio Montgomery is serving a life sentence for the murders of officers Jeffrey Shelton and Sean Clark.
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Contributing to this report were Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky; and Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland.