8 officers shot, 4 fatally, while serving warrant in Charlotte
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department officers walk in the neighborhood where a shooting took place in Charlotte, N.C., today. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says officers from the U.S. Marshals Task Force were carrying out an investigation today in a suburban neighborhood when they came under gunfire.
Eight law enforcement officers were shot today, four fatally, as a U.S. Marshals fugitive task force tried to serve a warrant in Charlotte, North Carolina, the police said, in one of the deadliest days for law enforcement in recent years.
The suspect they were seeking was also killed.
Around 1:30 p.m., members of the task force went to the 5000 block of Galway Drive to serve a warrant on a person for being a felon in possession of a firearm, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said at a news conference Monday evening.
When they approached the person, the shooter fired at them, police said. The officers returned fire and struck the person, who was later pronounced dead in the front yard of the residence.
As police approached the shooter, Jennings told reporters, the officers were met with more gunfire from inside the home. Two people inside were taken to the station as “persons of interest.” One is a 17-year-old male and the other an adult woman, Jennings said.
“Today is an absolute tragic day for the city of Charlotte and for the profession of law enforcement,” Jennings said.
In all, four members of the task force were shot, three of whom died. The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed that one of its deputy marshals was among those killed. Two of those killed were officers with the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, Gov. Roy Cooper said on social media. The task force is made up of officers from multiple agencies.
Four members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department were also shot and injured, one of whom died from his injuries Monday night, police said on social media. The officer, Joshua Eyer, had been with the department for six years, police said.
Authorities shut down the city’s Shannon Park neighborhood, east of downtown, Monday afternoon in order to more easily move victims to hospitals, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department wrote on social media.
Police did not release the name of the shooter who was killed, the two persons of interest or any of the other law enforcement officers.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
