Four agents, on a mission for the Marshals group dedicated to searching for fugitives in the United States, were shot to death when they went to a house in Charlotte (North Carolina) in compliance with a court order to arrest a criminal for possession of a firearm.
The persecuted person, also deceased and whose name was not given, received the police with fire and bullets, apparently without prior warning. He saw them approaching and fired. Four other uniformed officers were injured.
Once the suspect was neutralized, a second person opened fire from inside the house, where the officers found a high-capacity rifle, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings explained at a press conference.
A woman and a 17-year-old boy were found at that home after a three-hour siege, which included armored vehicles crashing into a residence in a wooded neighborhood and tearing out doors and windows. Both that woman and the young man became “persons of interest” for investigators. The two were to be questioned, although Jennings neither confirmed nor denied that they were involved.
A local ABC helicopter captured an armored vehicle driving through the gardens, taking out recycling bins before officers grabbed an individual wearing a bloody T-shirt and put him in an ambulance.
Once the danger in the house was eliminated and under control this Monday, the pilot of the device said that he could not show a part of the garden of the house where the scuffle occurred because the scene was too graphic and disturbing.
“Today we lost heroes who were simply doing their job to keep our community safe,” said Chief Jennings.
The Marshals Corps, the oldest police agency in the United States, confirmed the death of one of its members. Two of the deceased were part of the state corrections department, Governor Roy Cooper explained.
Another federal member of this group was injured, while the other four were from the local police. They were hit by bullets when they tried to rescue their companions. One of the local agents was taken to the hospital alive, where he died after several hours struggling between life and death.
“There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered, now we don't even know what those questions are,” Jennings said a few hours after the shooting. “We have to fully understand why this happened and also preserve the integrity of the investigation,” she added.
According to the police chief, this is “the most tragic incident I have been involved in in my 32-year career in law enforcement, I can't imagine one worse than this we have seen in the Charlotte area.”
US President Joe Biden was informed about what happened. The last case of a marshal shot dead occurred in November 2018. In six years, the regional force of this agency has arrested 8,900 fugitives, the Marshal service indicates on its website.
