3 officers assaulted while trying to arrest break-in suspect, CMPD says

CHARLOTTE — Channel 9 spoke with a woman after three Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officers were assaulted while responded to a break-in at her home.

Officials with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said officers were called around noon to Spring Park Drive in north Charlotte for a suspicious person. When they arrived, they found someone at a home. He said he lived there, but officers discovered he actually didn’t and had broken into the home.

Police said the suspect tried to go back inside the home, so officers followed him into the house.

CMPD said a confrontation began when they tried to take him into custody. According to CMPD, officers told the suspect several times not to resist but he didn’t comply.

CMPD said the suspect pinned down a female officer and tried to choke her. Another officer was cut on his face and the third officer was injured in his eye.

‘I could hear him downstairs’

The woman said the man broke into her home while her teenage daughter and newborn were inside.

The intruder acted like he lived in the house, said Akera Gunn, who recently bought the house.

“He was in the house at least long enough to have helped himself to a drink and was preparing to help himself to another drink,” Gunn told Channel 9.

When the officers followed the suspect into the house, Gunn said he told police that he lived there.

“He kept saying that his wife and his family were here,” Gunn said. “They kept asking my daughter if they knew him. Nobody in the house knows him.”

Gunn said her daughter, the infant, and two teens were upstairs when they heard a commotion on the first floor.

The daughter watched the struggle between the intruder and the police in the living room while on the phone with her mom.

Gunn said she could hear the chaos while she was driving home.

“She says, ‘Mom, we have an intruder in the house,’” Gunn said. “At that point, I could hear him downstairs. I could also hear the officers with him. I could hear an officer that was in distress.”

CMPD said the fight happened as officers tried to take the man into custody.

The officers were taken to a local hospital by MEDIC. Their injuries aren’t considered to be life-threatening, police said.

The suspect was also injured but has non-life-threatening injuries, the department said. He was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

CMPD didn’t share the suspect’s identity, but did say he’s accused of felony assault.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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