Man talks about shooting death of wife

CONCORD, N.C. — The Rev. Timothy Crumitie, a Concord pastor, spoke with Eyewitness News reporter Trish Williford about the deaths of his business partner, his wife and another man.

ARTICLE: VIDEO CLIP: Timothy Crumitie interview

First, Crumitie's business partner was killed and he served five years in jail before prosecutors dropped his charges. 

Then last July, his wife and another man were shot dead inside his garage just feet away from him.

Williford asked, "Mr. Crumitie. I'm just going to ask you point blank. Did you kill Mr. Blanks? Did you kill your wife?"

"No, I did not," Crumitie said.

For the first time, Crumitie talked about the killings Thursday.

He said James Blanks came into his garage last year and attacked him and shot his wife.

"The only thing I felt was a hard hit in the back of my head. I went to the floor. I heard my wife screaming, 'Honey, get up,'" Crumitie said.

He said the gun went off and his wife was shot.

Crumitie said he finally got the gun away from Blanks and shot him.

Even though Crumitie was not charged in these deaths and charges were dropped involving his business partner, Crumitie said he's still become the target of Concord police.

Since the shooting, Crumitie has been charged with setting fire to his house and has pleaded guilty to insurance fraud.

ARTICLE: Man who survived shooting, house fire charged with insurance fraud

But he said he's innocent of all the deaths that have happened around him.

Crumitie has hired the civil rights organization True Healing Under God to help him with his case against Concord police.
He also plans to hire an attorney.

Channel 9 contacted Concord police for comment about Crumitie's case.

They gave us an account of the charges Crumitie now faces but they did not respond to his claims of being targeted by their department, nor did they talk about the deaths of his wife or Blanks.

WSOC