CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department on Friday gave more details on a deadly shootout that left four officers dead and four more hurt about a month ago in east Charlotte.
The shooting happened on April 29 as members of a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force were attempting to arrest a suspect who was wanted for a weapons charge. CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said the suspect opened fire and killed four people: CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer, Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Weeks, Investigator Sam Poloche, and Investigator William “Alden” Elliott.
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The department addressed the initial reports of a second shooter and gave their explanation as to why officers were still shooting after the original suspect was taken down.
According to CMPD Deputy Chief Tonya Arrington, the department’s investigators determined there was no friendly fire or “sympathetic gunfire” between officers during the incident.
Arrington shared a rendering of the house where the shootout took place and said that the suspect was firing at officers from multiple windows on the second floor.
“The shooter was able to move back and forth between three windows,” Arrington said.
The suspect then jumped out of a window that was on the first floor in the front of the house before he was shot by responding officers.
Arrington said that because gunfire was coming from multiple directions, it “provided the impression of a second shooter at the scene.”
According to Arrington, officers were engaged in gunfire with the suspect for more than 17 minutes before he was taken down.
“That’s an eternity,” Arrington said. “They were in a gunbattle.”
CMPD says that while attempting to extract the people who were hurt, an officer spotted movement on the second floor and fired a single shot. Other officers “began suppressive fire at the direction where the officers spotted the suspect shooting.”
“Based on this evidence there was no friendly fire in this case,” Arrington said.
She said the officers’ gunfire was aimed at the second-floor windows and they were shooting at an upward trajectory. Arrington said the officers weren’t shooting at each other.
“From this investigation, the officers’ suppressive gunfire was intentional and directed,” Arrington said Friday night.
CMPD says that there was no sympathetic gunfire, which is when officers fire their guns in response to another officer firing without seeing the suspect.
>>Watch CMPD’s entire news briefing in the video below.
Arrington said the department’s investigators confirmed that the suspect was responsible for all of the shots that hit officers in the line of duty that day.
Arrington said that before the gunbattle, officers used a bullhorn and asked the suspect to come outside.
She also said officers did not approach the front door and were holding their position when the gunman opened fire.
(VIDEO: Wanted man killed in shootout with deputies after being found guilty of child sex crimes)
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