Two Police Officers Killed; No Arrests Made Yet

Apr 01, 04:54 PM

Current Headlines: By Kytja Weir, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Apr. 1--Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers were fatally shot in the line of duty late Saturday when they responded to a call at an east Charlotte apartment complex.

Officers Sean Clark and Jeffrey Shelton both died at Carolinas Medical Center early today. They were the first Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers fatally shot in the line of duty in more than a decade.

Police had not charged anyone in the slayings by this afternoon but they said they are interviewing "people of interest" in the case. Earlier in the day they said they were looking for two men but did not have detailed descriptions of them.

Some details are still sketchy, but police will discuss the case publicly at 5 p.m. today.

They have said, however, they do not believe the shooting is connected to last week's crackdown on the Hidden Valley Kings, a gang based in northeast Charlotte near the shooting, police spokeswoman Julie Hill said.

The two North Tryon division officers were called out to handle a reported disturbance at 10:26 p.m. at the Timber Ridge Apartments on Barrington Drive near Milton Road and East W.T. Harris Boulevard, police said.

They were shot around 11:15 p.m., police said, while struggling with a person in the apartment complex parking lot. Neither officer fired his weapon, police said.

A man at the complex who declined to give his name says everything started around 10:30 p.m. "Me and my daughter were standing at the door and I heard 'bam, bam, bam' five times," he said. "I saw a guy wearing dark clothes run down here. I didn't ever go down there, but somebody said two police were down there dead."

Medic ambulances and the fire department were called at 11:21 p.m. and arrived four minutes later. They rushed the officers to Carolinas Medical Center's main hospital.

Clark, 34, who had worked for the department for just over a year, died shortly after midnight. He was a 1991 graduate of West Mecklenburg High School and lived in Iron Station in Lincoln County. He has a toddler son, and his wife is expecting a child in June.

Officer Shelton, 35, who had been with the force for more than six years, was pronounced dead just after 4 a.m. He transferred from the South division in January as part of the department's redistricting.

Capt. Mike Adams called Shelton a "very hard-working" officer who worked the midnight shift along the South Boulevard corridor before the transfer, making a dent in crime there. But as the police started to redraw lines, Adams said Shelton requested to move to a new assignment. He had been working in North Tryon since mid-January. He was married and lived in Locust in Stanly County.

"It's heartbreaking," Officer Bob Fey, a CMPD officer who was working off-duty at the time, told WCNC. "Just hearing a call like that going out over the air ... just hearing the dispatcher say those words over the air, 'We have two officers shot in the North Tryon Division,' it just makes your heart skip a beat."

Shot in the line of duty

The last time an officer from the department was fatally shot in the line of duty was in 1993, when the city was a smaller place but had a record year of violence with 129 homicides.Officers John Burnette, 25, and Andy Nobles, 26, were shot to death after responding to a call about a stolen van. Alden Harden was convicted of shooting Burnette and Nobles as the officers chased him through woods near Boulevard Homes in southwest Charlotte. He was sentenced to death.

Streets near the crime scene were renamed for the two popular community officers, and there also is a memorial bearing their names in Sharon Memorial Park in east Charlotte.

But this latest police shooting came almost exactly a year after Officer Kayvan Hazrati was shot in the head while trying to serve a rape warrant against a man in northern Charlotte. He survived the shooting but has not yet returned to work. Another officer was also shot at during a standoff with the same suspect but his helmet deflected the bullet.

Police have not yet said whether Clark and Shelton were wearing their bulletproof vests Saturday night.

The scene

After Saturday's shooting, Milton Road was blocked off for several hours overnight while police conducted their search for the suspects, but it has since been reopened. A SWAT team, K-9 units and a police helicopter were called to assist police in their efforts.

At the complex Sunday morning, a playground with a blue slide remained marked off by police tape at the center of the Timber Ridge apartment complex, which is full of two-story apartments with red bricks, beige siding and iron railings. Timber Ridge apartments is managed by the Westminster Company.

Neighbors say they hear gunshots often in the neighborhood.

"Many a night, I had to lay on the floor. I say 'get down, get down,' and I pull my grandbabies on the floor," said a woman who declined to give her name because of fear of retribution. "When I call them (the police), it takes them forever to come."

Police are still investigating what happened Saturday night, and trying to determine why the officers were shot. No funeral arrangements or memorials have been announced. Police asked Sunday that the public pray for Clark, Shelton and their families.

-- Staff writer April Bethea, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Observer news partner WCNC contributed.

-- Read tomorrow's Charlotte Observer for more details on this developing story.

Have a Tip?

Police ask anyone with information about the shooting to call 911.

The Timeline

Saturday:

--10:26 p.m.: Officer Sean Clark, 34 and Officer Jerry Shelton, 35, respond to a disturbance call at Timber Ridge apartments off Barrington Drive near Milton Road. However a second, higher priority police call comes in and they leave to take care of that call, police spokeswoman Julie Hill said. They return to the Timber Ridge complex where things escalates.

--About 11:15 p.m.: Both officers are shot while struggling with a person in the parking lot of the apartment complex, police said.

--11:21 p.m.: Medic, Mecklenburg County's emergency medical service, and the Charlotte Fire Department are called about a shooting there. They are told by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police one officer has been shot.

--11:25 p.m.: Charlotte firefighters are the first to arrive. They learn en route a second officer was shot.

Ambulances arrived soon afterward, but they need to stay several blocks away until police can make sure it's safe for them to enter, said Medic spokesman John Deem.

--11:29 p.m.: Emergency vehicles are allowed onto the scene to help the officers.

--11:30 p.m.: Medical workers make first contact with the officers.

--11: 50 p.m.: Both officers have arrived at the hospital by ambulance.

Sunday:

--12:14 a.m.: Clark dies in the emergency department at Carolinas Medical Center.

--4:06 a.m.: Shelton dies at the hospital.

--5:30 a.m.: Police Chief Darrel Stephens addresses the media

--8:40 a.m.: Police lead a witness, who appears to be a teenager, from one of the apartment buildings. He covers his head with a hoodie.

--9 a.m.: Officers conduct a search for shell casings at the apartment complex. More than a dozen officers canvassed the neighborhood in the drizzle Sunday morning, using metal detectors to search for shell casings in bushes and trees after using batons to push away plants and litter.

--5 p.m.: Police plan to discuss details of the case at the police department's headquarters. WCNC, the Observer's news partner, plans to broadcast the press conference live on Channel 6.

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