TAYLORSVILLE, N.C. — A mother is in grief after she says her son was shot and killed by deputies on Mother’s Day. Deputies said he fired a handgun at them while they were serving a warrant for his arrest in Taylorsville.
According to the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office, around 10 p.m. Sunday, the deputies went to a home on Dusty Road in Taylorsville to arrest the suspect on five outstanding charges.
The suspect was outside the house when deputies arrived and they said he ignored their commands. Authorities said he ran from deputies at first, but was caught and started fighting the deputy who caught him.
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The sheriff’s office said then, the man shot at the deputy. Another deputy returned fire, killing him.
The suspect’s mom, Ruby Rose, said her son wasn’t perfect, but she doesn’t understand how this could all happen. She said her son, 40-year-old Jason Williams, was shot three times.
“My whole family’s been torn apart,” she said.
Rose waited all night and Monday morning to return to the home on Dusty Road.
“It just breaks my heart. It breaks my heart,” she said.
Rose said her son has been arrested before.
“Jason wasn’t all good, but he wasn’t all bad either,” she said.
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She said she has never known him to carry a gun.
“My son didn’t have a gun and I’ll never believe that,” Rose said.
A witness account supports what Rose said -- they said they heard one shot followed by three more and then nothing else. Rose said she needs to see and hear more than that, and she is now learning it may take weeks to get results from an autopsy.
“I’m his mother,” she said. “What if it was your son? How would you feel? I can’t do this no more. Somebody’s got to give me some answers somewhere.”
The Alexander County Sheriff’s Office said they aren’t releasing the names of the deputies involved.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation will investigate, per protocol, and the deputy involved is on paid administrative leave.
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