Eight law officers were shot Monday, four fatally, as the U.S. Marshals’ fugitive task force attempted to serve an arrest warrant in Charlotte, N.C., This was one of the deadliest days for law enforcement in recent years, police said.
The suspect they were looking for was also killed.
Around 1:30 p.m., members of the task force responded to the 5000 block of Galway Drive to serve a warrant on a person for possession of a firearm, said Johnny Jennings, chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. learned during a press conference Monday night.
Police said as they approached the person, the shooter fired at them. Police returned fire and beat the man, who was later pronounced dead in the front yard of the home.
As police approached the shooter, Chief Jennings told reporters, officers were met with more gunfire from inside the home. The two people inside were taken to the station as “persons of interest”. One is a 17-year-old male and the other is an adult female, Chief Jennings said.
“Today is a tragic day for the city of Charlotte and for the law enforcement profession,” Chief Jennings said. “Today, we lost several heroes who were trying to keep our communities safe.”
A total of four members of the task force were shot, three of whom died. The US Marshals Service confirmed that one of its deputy marshals was among those killed. Gov. Roy Cooper said two of the dead were officers with the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections. social media. The task force includes officers from multiple agencies.
Four members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department were also shot, one of whom died from his injuries Monday evening, police said. on social networks. Police said Officer Joshua Eyer, who has been with the department for six years, was helping other officers apprehend the suspect when he was shot.
“He fought for several hours and succumbed to his injuries with his wife and family by his side this evening,” Chief Jennings said. in a statement posted to social media on Monday night. “I am truly grateful for his courage, service and ultimate sacrifice,” he said.
Police did not release the names of the shooter who died, the two people involved or any other law enforcement officers.
Authorities closed off the city’s Shannon Park neighborhood, east of downtown, on Monday afternoon after gunfire erupted to make it easier to move victims to the hospital, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department wrote on social network.
Charlene Middleton, a 36-year-old school counselor, has lived in the area all her life and since 2015, in a house across the street from where the incident occurred. She said when she returned home from work in the evening, she saw bullet casings scattered across the street as well as a heavy police presence.
Although she said there have been occasional shootings in the area, she couldn’t remember anything on such a large scale.
“This is very shocking,” Ms. Middleton said in a telephone interview. “I can’t believe it’s happening.”
Another resident, Mary Sutter, said she had difficulty returning home after work at a nearby high school because the area was so crowded with police cars. “We were all shocked that this happened here,” she said.
Vi Lyles, mayor of Charlotte, said at the press conference: “These were people who cared deeply about what they did professionally. And today, we get to tell them how grateful we are for what they did.”
Governor Cooper expressed his condolences social media to “the families and colleagues of the officers in today’s brutal attack.” And in a statement, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said, “Every day, Deputy United States Marshals and Special Forces Officers risk their lives to capture some of the country’s most dangerous criminals we.” He added that the Justice Department was “heartbroken by the deaths.”
Monday’s violence was one of the deadliest attacks on law enforcement in recent years. In July 2016, five officers were killed in Texas after an armed sniper opened fire in downtown Dallas during a protest against a deadly police shooting. Four Dallas police officers and a transit employee were killed. Police killed gunman Micah Johnson, 25, with explosives sent by a remote-controlled robot.
That same month, three officers in Baton Rouge, La., were killed, and three others were injured in what authorities described as an “ambush.” The gunman was killed in the gunfight.
In February, Two police officers and a paramedic were killed near Minneapolis after a man barricaded in his home opened fire on police. Police returned fire and the gunman was later pronounced dead.
Last month, two police officers were killed outside a home near Syracuse, NY, during a shootout after they were following a traffic violation. The suspect also died in the shootout.
Chief Jennings said that in his more than three decades with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, he could not “have imagined that there was a worse place than what we are seeing today” in the Charlotte area.
Glenn’s thrush, Jesus Jiménez and David Perlmutt contributed reporting and Kirsten Noyes contributing research.
