CMPD: Officer, suspect shot during southwest Charlotte traffic stop

CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer is in the hospital after he was shot during a traffic stop Sunday night, the department said.

The shooting happened around 7:30 p.m. in southwest Charlotte on East Arrowood Road at Nations Ford Road.

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The officer was shot multiple times and has serious injuries, CMPD Deputy Chief Dave Robinson said in a news conference.

“I know he’s in good spirits,” Robinson said. “I know it is a serious injury, he was shot multiple times. I know he’s getting the best care possible with the medical facilities that we have here in Charlotte.”

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CMPD said two officers in one police cruiser were responding to an assault with a deadly weapon call and pulled over a vehicle they believed could be involved. In a news release, the department said the officers were having a conversation with the person in that car when the suspect pulled out a gun.

Shots were fired and both an officer and that suspect were shot.

The second officer was also taken to the hospital as a precaution.

“I know the other officer, they are both shaken up,” Robinson said. “This doesn’t just affect the two officers, it shakes us to the core in the law enforcement community and should shake the community to the core.”

The suspect has life-threatening injuries, CMPD said.

When asked who fired first, Robinson said that remains to be seen.

“That’ll come out in the investigation, but I challenge anyone who has that type of question to say, ‘Should that really matter?’” Robinson said. “And what I will say to that is in a traffic stop, think about it just for a second, about the split-second decisions that have to be made. And if you’re just talking to somebody and all of a sudden they just produce a firearm — and potentially you just did a violent crime in the area just minutes ago — What that suspect may be thinking, but what our police officers may be faced with doing. So that will come out in the investigation.”

Police were at the shooting scene until around 1:30 a.m. Monday to collect evidence.

(WATCH BELOW: 1 hospitalized following west Charlotte shooting, MEDIC says)