(Chicago teens charged with murder of honor student. Four teens were charged with first-degree murder in the brutal beating death of a Chicago high school student that was caught on videotape. NBC's Robert Stafford reports.)
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(An Apopka, Fla., teenager is shot four times after he was caught having sex with the shooter's daughter, police say. WESH-TV's Craig Lucie reports.)
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Sex charges dropped in Charlotte bus-stop slaying
Prosecutors dropped a statutory rape charge against a Charlotte man accused of having sex with his pregnant, adoptive sister who was shot to death while waiting for her school bus.
The Charlotte Observer reported that Mecklenburg District Attorney Peter Gilchrist said Thursday he had no case to base allegations that Royce Mitchell, 36, had sex with Tiffany Wright, 15.. The prosecutor said DNA tests showed Mitchell was not the father of Tiffany's baby.
Gilchrist says there was no other evidence to support the charge without Tiffany alive to testify about sexual contact with her adoptive brother.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police issued a statement criticizing the prosecutor's decision, saying they believe the have gathered enough evidence to prove probable cause.
Police call Mitchell "a person of interest" in 15-year-old Tiffany's killing on Sept. 14 but have not charged him.
Suspect in pregnant teen's death to lose Probation
Federal prosecutors are preparing documents to revoke Royce Mitchell's probation, which means he'll stay in the Mecklenburg jail until state charges of raping his 15-year-old adopted sister are dealt with, authorities said.
Mitchell, 36, is listed as a person of interest in the death of Tiffany Wright, who was eight months pregnant when she was shot in the head at a school bus stop Monday morning.
Her baby was successfully delivered at Carolinas Medical Center later that day, but the hospital has stopped releasing information about the infant.
After the shooting, Mitchell was charged with statutory rape and taking indecent liberties with a minor.
Those charges constitute probation violations, and a Federal warrant is being prepared in New York that “will keep him from getting out of jail,” said Greg Forest, chief of the Federal probation office in Charlotte.
He was imprisoned on a drug-trafficking charge in New York in 1999. He was released in April 2007 and sentenced to four years' probation, Forest said.
Mitchell has a bond hearing scheduled for Sept. 25 on the Charlotte rape charges.
The announcement by Federal Prosecutors came on the same day that Charlotte officials fired Mitchell from his job in the street maintenance department.
Mitchell had worked for the city since 2007 and earned $25,808 a year.
City officials said that their background checks didn't catch his previous criminal convictions.
Kim McMillan of the City of Charlotte said that “after administrative review, the City of Charlotte has terminated the employment of Royce Mitchell for falsifying his employment application, which is in violation of city policy.”
McMillan did not say in what way Mitchell falsified his application. But city officials said Wednesday that as a result of the Mitchell case, they plan to expand background checks to include a search of federal offenses around the country.
Until now, the city's background checks have included local and state records, and Federal records in the Justice Department's Western North Carolina District.
Statement From District Attorney Peter Gilchrist: "No charges will be filed in Marcus Fluker's Death"
Here is the statement released today by District Attorney Peter Gilchrist in the shooting death of Marcus Fluker:
"THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE HAS DECIDED THAT NO CHARGES WILL BE FILED AGAINST C.L. MCCLURE IN THE SHOOTING DEATH OF MARCUS FLUKER
The investigation into the shooting death of Marcus Fluker by Mr. C.L. McClure has been completed and turned over to the District Attorney’s Office. The investigating officers utilized a procedure established by this office which allows departments to request that we make the charging decision. This procedure can be followed when investigation indicates probable cause to arrest is present but officers have questions and request we review the evidence they have gathered in order to determine whether charges should be brought.
On August 22, 2009, 76 year old C.L. McClure was sitting in his basement room cooling off after cutting his yard. At approximately 12:30 in the afternoon, he saw a young black male walk past the door of this room. He thought it was his grandson coming by to see him. When he didn’t come into the room, Mr. McClure walked to the door to see what he was doing. He was greeted by a young man with his face covered and armed with a weapon.
Mr. McClure was told to get on the ground. He was duct taped and robbed of cash and jewelry. Another man entered into the basement as well. Mr. McClure was asked who and what was in the main house. Mr. McClure told them his wife was upstairs and to please not hurt her. One man left the other stayed. Mr. McClure’s wife was also a victim of this home invasion when they entered the home and took items from there as well.
After a brief period, the other man left and Mr. McClure got off the ground, retrieved a gun he had in the basement, and went to check on his wife. He saw a number of young men running from his house into the woods. From previous break-ins at his residence he believed that the robbers were running to a vehicle on the other side of the woods. His wife told him she was okay and he got into his vehicle. His intention at that time was to get to their car before they did and to shoot out the tires to immobilize their car until the police arrived.
As Mr. McClure approached the area where he thought a car might be parked, there was no car, and instead he saw all the young men running towards him. At this point he fired a shot in the air in an attempt to scatter them away from him and his vehicle and back into the woods. Instead, they kept running towards him. Some passed in front of his car and some behind.
As Marcus Fluker passed his car he began to turn towards Mr. McClure. McClure, an Army veteran, had identified the weapon pointed at him at his house as some type of automatic weapon. When Fluker turned towards him he thought he was about to get “sprayed” by fire from this automatic weapon. He fired at him. McClure did not know if he struck him because Mr. Fluker turned back around and continued to run. At this point, McClure no longer felt in danger and did not fire his weapon again.
After the police arrived they went with Mr. McClure into the apartment complex where the individuals had been last scene. At this point, it was learned that Marcus Fluker had been struck by a single gunshot wound. At the place where he was found there was no gun. This location was not secure until the police arrived.
The investigation of this case recovered two firearms taken from Mr. McClure’s home and it is clear that Mr. Fluker was one of the individuals involved in the home invasion robbery. As a result of these events, Mr. McClure’s 70 year old wife suffered a heart attack.
In making a decision as to whether to charge Mr. McClure in this case, the District Attorney’s Office has considered all of the above facts as well as the law of self defense.
The only eyewitness to this shooting is Mr. McClure. The physical evidence corroborates what he told detectives. His idea to find the vehicle and try to delay the escape of those who invaded his home did not make him the aggressor nor did that take away his right of self defense.
Mr. McClure believed that his life was in danger and fired in self-defense. It is the burden of the State in a criminal case to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a charged individual did not act in self defense. The State cannot meet that burden in this case as it appears from all the credible evidence that Mr. McClure feared for his life."
An understandable, but wrong, response
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 prolonged 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: WRAL, McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, MSNBC, WCNC, US Dept of Justice, Charmeck.org, MTV Videos, Creepygif.com, Charmeckda.com, Youtube, Google Maps
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