Charlotte Observer----
Seventy-six-year-old C.L. McClure would talk to a reporter only through his front door intercom Tuesday – three days after police said he shot and killed a 15-year-old suspected of robbing him and his wife.
“I'm not in any condition to talk,” said the retired building fireproofer through the faint static of his intercom speaker. He wouldn't elaborate.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said Tuesday that two separate investigative units – robbery and homicide – are trying to unravel what happened in a home invasion that ended with the death of 15-year-old Marcus Fluker.
The CMPD said home invasions are down this year by 19 percent, along with nearly all categories of violent crime.
And instances of a victim shooting at a perpetrator, let alone wounding or killing one, are extremely rare, said CMPD Capt. Mike Smathers, who commands the department's robbery unit.
Police also said Tuesday they want to prevent any possible retribution against McClure. A CMPD cruiser was parked Tuesday a few doors down from the McClure residence, and officers have made visits to the home to check on the elderly couple in northeast Charlotte's Newell community.
“I think there's a concern. They just want to be extra careful. It's extra upsetting to have a 15-year-old shot and killed,” said Smathers. “I don't care who you are; that's terrible. They're just trying to make sure peace is maintained.”
Police say McClure's brick home was the starting point of the complex crime scene.
According to a Saturday interview with McClure's son Larry, four teens entered the home while McClure was eating ice cream in his basement hobby shop.
The robbers, one armed with a gun, bound him with duct tape and held his wife at gunpoint. They ransacked the house and made off with some jewelry and a wallet, police said.
After they left, McClure broke free. “He checked on my mother,” said Larry McClure, who lives next door, “and he assumed he knew their route. He thought they might have been driving, and he wanted to get a tag number.”
“In his mind,” Larry McClure said, “he was worried they'd be back.”
His son said McClure grabbed his gun, got into his dark green van and guessed the thieves would head toward nearby Ginger Lane. Larry McClure said his father told him he was in his van when he saw one of the suspected robbers and thought he was armed. C.L. McClure fired his pistol when the teen turned toward him, his son said.
Fluker died later at Carolinas Medical Center. Police said they didn't recover a gun from where he fell.
Family and friends of Fluker say he was a good kid and got in with a bad crowd. They said they wished McClure had merely called police and waited.
Officers took McClure to headquarters for questioning, but he was released Saturday without being charged. In North Carolina, it's legal to kill someone in defense of yourself or another. N.C. law also protects homeowners who shoot to defend their property.
As of Tuesday police hadn't charged McClure. The Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office will make a final decision.
Police have charged the other three teens with robbery and burglary.
Police identified them as Joseph Graves, 17, Matthew Everett Morgan, 17, and Tahjaue Wiley, 18.
Morgan already had a pending charge of robbery with a dangerous weapon from last summer and was scheduled to go to trial in October. He was convicted in May of bringing a weapon onto school grounds.
Graves and Wiley do not have any convictions on their N.C. record. Fluker's mother told the Observer her son had not been arrested or jailed before. Criminal records for minors are not available.
An understandable, but wrong, response
(Robbery victim was violated, but can't impose justice himself.)
Mecklenburg District Attorney Peter Gilchrist will have to decide what charges to file, if any, against C.L. McClure in the shooting of a 15-year-old robbery suspect. But in a case being portrayed as complicated, one fundamental seems uncomplicated to us: you can't just track a boy down on the streets and shoot him dead because you think he helped rob you earlier.
We're sympathetic to McClure. His son says he and his wife were tied up and robbed in their home by four suspects. The fear and anger they must have felt are unimaginable. It's understandable that McClure would want revenge. And if McClure had shot one of the intruders in his home during the course of the crime, he would be much easier to defend.
But McClure, according to his son, Larry, jumped in his van and raced after the robbers after they had left. He caught up with them not far from his house and, his son says, fired the shots that killed Marcus Antonio Steven Fluker, 15.
We detest the actions of Fluker and the three other suspects who police say invaded McClure's home. But robbery is not an offense punishable by death. And as veteran criminal defense lawyer George Laughrun said, “Even if they were threatened, or felt threatened, you still can't walk down the street like in the Old West and take care of justice yourself.” Laughrun said a jury would have to decide “did someone have the right to be judge, jury and executioner?”
No one has that right unless they are acting to protect their own life. McClure's son said McClure believed he was in imminent danger, and he may well have felt that way. But the robbery was over. At that point, McClure should have called police, not taken matters into his own hands. If this model is followed, how long will it be before a robbery victim, seeking revenge, shoots an innocent person on the street?
Our justice system doesn't always work as well as we would like. It's reasonable to think in a situation like this that police might arrive too late to apprehend the suspects (though they did make three arrests in this case). Given our clogged prisons and flawed court system, any punishment is uncertain.
But the alternative – in which each of us can just mete out vigilante justice as we please – is a slippery slope. It might feel good in theory but in fact would make this community more dangerous.
City of Charlotte reaches Settlement in teen's Taser death
The City of Charlotte settled with the family of a 17-year-old who died in March 2008 after being shot by a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer with a Taser, according to an attorney representing the family.
The out-of-court agreement was announced Tuesday by attorney Ken Harris, who represented the family of Darryl Turner in a suit against the city.
Harris said he expects other litigation in the case, however.
Turner died March 20, 2008, after a confrontation with police at a north Charlotte grocery store where Turner had worked.
The officer who fired the Taser was not charged, but he was disciplined by police.
Police later determined that Officer Jerry Dawson Jr. violated department policy with the way he shocked Turner with the Taser gun. An autopsy showed the teenager's heart was pumping so fast and chaotically from the stress of the confrontation and the Taser shot that it stopped pumping blood properly.
Dawson was suspended for five days without pay in July 2008.
In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Harris did not disclose the amount of the settlement but described it as “very substantial.”
City legal officials could not be reached.
While saying the settlement closes the case against the city, Harris said the matter probably is not closed.
“This is a tragedy that Darryl's relatives hope will never be visited upon another family,” he said. “In light of that perspective, I must note that there will likely be litigation in this matter concerning other parties.”
Harris did not specify who else might be a subject of litigation by Turner's family.
The Taser is a weapon that typically uses compressed nitrogen to shoot two tethered needle-like probes that penetrate skin and deliver an electric shock. It is designed to subdue a person temporarily.
The incident which led to Turner's death happened at a Food Lion store on Properity Church Road. According to court documents, police were called after the store manager asked Turner to leave and he refused. Store surveillance video showed Turner at the customer service desk, knocking over a display and throwing an umbrella. He then moved closer to a store manager and employee, at one point raising his arm and pointing at the manager.
The video then showed Dawson walking through the front door, carrying what appears to be his Taser. Dawson approached Turner with the Taser pointed at him. Turner took a step toward the officer, then continued to walk past him.
It was unclear from the video when Turner was shocked, but police said it happened as Turner stepped toward the officer.
In an investigation which followed the incident, police determined that Dawson held the trigger of the Taser for 37 seconds, until Turner fell. The officer later shocked Turner a second time, for five seconds. According to the CMPD report on the incident, a review board “determined that rthe initial decision to discharge the Taser was within our procedures, but the prlonged use of the Taser was not.”
In addition to the suspension, Dawson also was given additional training on proper use of the Taser.
In the statement announcing the settlement, Harris praised city officials for “their thorough investigation of this matter” and for the city's “openness throughout the process.”
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Sources: Charlotte Observer, WCNC, US Dept of Justice, Charmeck.org, Google Maps
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