Police experts said the chronology and context of the events in Monday’s fatal shooting in Charlotte, in which four law enforcement officers died, is important to understanding what happened.
A review could lead to changes in law enforcement agencies nationwide, one expert said.
“A situation like (Monday) was always my biggest fear,” said Anthony Cangelosi, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City who served as a deputy U.S. marshal from 1997 to 2000. “You think you’re just walking up to the house and the next thing you know, bullets are flying.”
Four deputies were killed and four others were wounded by gunshots Monday afternoon when members of the U.S. Marshals Service’s Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force went to a home on Galway Drive around 1:30 p.m. attempted to arrest a man on pending charges of eluding police and felonies. possession of a firearm, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
After suspect Terry Clark Hughes Jr., 39, opened fire on members of the task force, he also shot at CMPD officers who were responding to help before police fatally shot him, CMPD said. A woman and a 17-year-old girl who were inside the home were taken to a police station for questioning, but are not currently considered suspects, Chief Johnny Jennings said this week.
Thomas Weeks Jr., a deputy U.S. marshal, was among the officers killed. CMPD is conducting an investigation.
Answers to questions such as how many task force officers arrived to try to make the arrest, how they did it and how and when police apparently used a vehicle to dismantle the front walls of the house are not yet publicly known. Twelve responding CMPD officers fired their weapons, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
The United States Marshals Service has declined to comment on its task forces’ protocol for arresting potentially dangerous people. No one from the Charlotte Marshals Service office responded to phone calls Tuesday and Thursday for this story.
“While Monday’s tragedy is still under investigation, we will not have the option to discuss any aspect of the event,” Marshals Service spokesman Barry Lane said in an email Thursday.
“There will be some answers that can’t be given, some questions that will linger at least until we can complete this investigation a little bit more,” CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings said at a news conference Wednesday. .
High risk arrests
He Bailiffs service is a federal agency that protects federal judges, manages seized assets, transports prisoners, operates a witness security program, and serves arrest warrants on fugitives. The Carolinas Regional Fugitive Task Force includes members of local law enforcement agencies in the Charlotte region and state corrections officials along with federal officials. It began operating in January 2018.
Police plan ahead when arresting someone like Hughes, one expert said.
“I think you can prepare as much as possible by recognizing that you don’t know what you don’t know,” said University of Miami professor Alexis Piquero, former director of the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Sheriff’s task forces gather as much information as they can in advance, he said. They will build a “game plan” that exposes a person’s past, their associates and neighbors and things like heavy traffic on the street where a person lives, Piquero said.
“You’re trying to anticipate every possible scenario,” he said. “If X happens, we will do this. If this happens, we are going to do this.”
Marshals Service Director Ronald Davis said at a news conference this week that every task force officer and deputy U.S. marshal receives training in apprehending high-risk fugitives, and that it will be reviewed. that happened in east Charlotte.
“Like any agency, we will always take a look,” he said in response to a question. “We will review this incident to see what lessons can be learned and what can be done. “We always strive to find ways to reduce fatal encounters and save lives.”
In an interview, Cangelosi, a professor at John Jay College, raised the question of why task force members attempted to deliver the order during Monday afternoon instead of early in the morning, when there could have been an element of surprise. He also wondered if a SWAT team was there from the beginning or arrived after the shooting.
Every situation is unique, he said.
“I’d like to know more,” he said of the protocols for Monday’s operation.
Questions without answer
A police analysis of what happened could serve to ensure it doesn’t happen anywhere else if there is anything to learn or do in the future, Piquero said.
He said he was confident the task force in Charlotte would have had all the information possible before attempting to make the arrest on Galway Drive, and he said he is confident the task force members would have had no shortcomings in prior reconnaissance.
Authorities took the situation seriously and assigned several officers to try to make the arrest, he said.
He said a key question will be how Hughes obtained the weapons he used against the officers. Police found an AR-15 rifle and a handgun at the scene, according to CMPD. Investigators had “probably more than 100 shells and casings” to examine, the chief said.
“We’re looking into how he acquired all the weapons,” Jennings said at Wednesday’s news conference. “We are moving forward with that and will be able to determine that based on the purchase of the firearms, who purchased them and how they were acquired from that individual.”