CHARLOTTE — A man died after both he and a police officer were shot during a traffic stop, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said.
It happened Sunday night in southwest Charlotte on East Arrowood Road at Nations Ford Road.
CMPD said two officers in one police cruiser were responding to an assault with a deadly weapon call and pulled over a car 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 and shots were fired.
CMPD said Officer Kenneth Kludy was shot multiple times and has serious injuries. He has since been released from the hospital and is recovering.
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The suspect, Nelson Javier Funez Reyes, 37, was also shot and was taken to the hospital. CMPD said Reyes died at the hospital on Tuesday.
The second officer in the police cruiser was also taken to the hospital as a precaution.
When asked who fired first, CMPD Deputy Chief Dave Robinson said Sunday 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.”
Investigators said Officer Kludy and the second officer, Officer Joshua Heater, fired their service weapons that night. Heater has been with the department since October 2020 and Kludy since February 2020. Both officers are part of CMPD’s Steele Creek Division.
Both officers are on paid administrative leave as standard procedure for an officer-involved shooting, CMPD said.
CMPD’s Homicide Unit is leading the investigation into the shooting.
(WATCH BELOW: Officer, suspect hurt in shooting during traffic stop, CMPD says)
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