WARNING GRAPHIC: NORTH CAROLINA — New body cam video shows Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers fatally shoot a man in the head at an east Charlotte Walmart last November.
According to police, CMPD officers responded to Winding Cedar Trail at around 6:00am on November 5th, after 33-year-old Derrell Raney told police he found two dead bodies. Officers searched the surroundings but found no evidence of the claims.
CMPD said members of the Crisis Intervention Team urged Raney to be evaluated at the hospital, but Raney refused treatment.
Police said Raney appeared to be coherent and not a danger to himself or others. Officers reached out to his family to notify them of the situation and explain how to seek an involuntary commitment order.
Later in the day, officers responded to an unrelated matter on the 9000 block of Albemarle Road, and then responded to another unrelated call at the Food Lion next door. While at the Food Lion, police said officers were approached by Walmart security who told them someone pointed a firearm at one of their security guards in the store’s parking lot.
Shortly before 6:00pm, the security guard pointed CMPD Officers Longworth and Edmunds in Raney’s direction, who was seated in the grass with a backpack in front of him and his right hand concealed by the backpack.
CMPD officers gave Raney verbal commands asking him to show his hands, but Raney did not comply. CMPD said he then partially removed the gun from the backpack and officers gave commands for Raney to drop the firearm.
CMPD said Raney began to raise the firearm towards officers, at which point Officer Longworth and Officer Edmunds fired their service weapons.
Raney was shot three times in the chest, once in the wrist and in the head — and was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead at around 6:30pm.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Both Officers Longworth and Edmunds have been placed on administrative assignment pending the investigation.
