CMPD presser on 3 US Marshals who were killed in shooting

hi good afternoon everyone my name is Kevin petus I'm a lieutenant with the Charlotte meberg Police Department here in Charlotte North Carolina I appreciate your patience this afternoon as we U have worked through uh the situation that we've been dealing with today uh there's no doubt that Charlotte our Charlotte Community has experienced a tragedy today and it's one that as a law enforcement Community we always know is possible but we never expect it never gets easier we're going to do our best to answer your questions today to provide details to be transparent about the events of this afternoon but I do implore you to understand uh that we're dealing with tragic loss of life today and uh that loss of life is very fresh there's details that we do not know there's questions that we frankly just aren't going to be able to answer U we will take your questions uh but first the chief of police for the Charlotte meberg Police Department Johnny Jennings is going to come and give you some information share his thoughts I'll spell that for you Johnny is j o h n n y last name is Jennings j n n i n gs after chief Jennings uh the mayor of the city of Charlotte VI lyes is going to come and share her thoughts vi v lyes l y l s Chief thank you lieutenant today's an absolute tragic day for the city of Charlotte and for the profession of law enforcement today we lost some Heroes that are out to just simply trying to keep our community safe I'm going to try to go through a series of events of how this all occurred and played out and then tell you a little bit more about uh about the injuries and the things that we had to endure today as a as a profession and as a city so about 1:30 p.m. this afternoon the you US Marshals fugitive task force went to the 5,000 block of gallway Avenue and attempt to serve a warrant on an individual for possession of firearm by a convicted felon when they approached that individual they were met with gunfire officers returned gunfire and struck the victim who was later pronounced deceased in in the front yard of the residence as officers approached that individual they were they then received received additional gunfire from inside of the residence so after a long standoff we were able to clear this residence and confirm that there were two additional people inside they were both brought to the police station as Persons of Interest and we're trying to determine now what exactly occurred inside of the residence tragically there were three members of the US Marshals task force who were pronounced deceased and there were there were four cmpd officers who were shot one being in critical condition who is now in the hospital fighting for his life a total of eight law enforcement officers were shot by this by the suspects in this house so we are very early in investigation cmpd will lead this investigation uh we still have a lot to uncover a lot of questions that are not answered right now so please respect the fact that I won't be able to answer some of the questions that you're going to have uh but at the same time uh we are going to diligently work on this to ensure that that we bring a respect to these officers and these law enforcement officials that lost their lives today and this is a good example of what we try to tell people every single day that when we put on this uniform that we don't have any guarantees that we'll return home but yet we have a lot of great men and women across this entire country that do it every single day to make sure that you're safe in your communities so with that I'm going to turn it over to Mayor vow if she want to say a few words I'm just going to put you never know what your day is going to be like you can't plan things like this to be in this space at this time we've lost three people they lost their lives after they gave us the opportunity to be in a safe place and they lost their lives these are people that care deeply about what they've done for a profession and now today we have to say to them how much we are grateful for what they have done we won't know very much about what happened until their investigation is done but I know this about our community our community stands up for people they stand up for all of the people that work for us that make it possible all of our officers if you had a little bit of problem driving around today I don't think anybody was too worried about that because we know that there is a reason for this and the there's a reason that everything happens and sometimes we don't understand it but at this point I know that this community will seek understanding I know that our police department will seek understanding I going to say this um we're very very much grateful today I heard from the White House about the loss of our officers and the situation that we were having to adjust to I've heard from congresswoman Adams as well as congresswoman Congressman Jeff Jackson on the way over here the Speaker of the House Tim Moore and the president of our state senate Phil Berger they all talked about what can they do to help us now we may not know what help we need right now today but we do know that when people reach out to say this is something that is important that has happened and they want to be a part of whatever we do because there will be a time that we will commemorate these people that lost their lives you think about it your father your husband your friend your neighbor all of them were some one person like that and today they're not going home you know three people lost their lives today and the most that I can ask of our community is that we honor and respect them for all the work that they've done all the work that we will do to make it possible for our city to be safer every one of us wants to be in a situation where they got you get up this morning and get to come back home and someone didn't today keep your prayers keep your faith make sure that these officers who have families have people to reach out and held them up because they will need this and we are a city that will make it possible for them to be this way to be able to live and know that we honor and respect the loss that they have thank you very much for this time thank you mayor I want to take just a moment just to clarify um there was a total of four cnpd officers I were struck by gunfire today and four Task Force officers that's a total of eight law enforcement officers who were who were struck by gunfire today um I want to take a minute to recognize the the people standing behind us here today the first responder Community the government organizations that that stand behind me this is a community within the community and it's incredible the bond that we have and it's demonstrated in no other way like it is in moments of Crisis and the moments of tragedy like the one that occurred today so to recognize the people that are with me today we have the Charlotte Fire Department medic home uh Department of Homeland Security Federal Bureau of Investigation Department of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms US Marshals meinberg County district attorneys office North Carolina Highway Patrol and I sure hope I didn't leave anybody off the list but for um on their behalf I want to thank you for being here and um on behalf of all the men and women that they represent who answer the call especially when tragedy strike so I want to I want to thank them um any questions that you have chief chief Jennings and mayor Liars are available Chief Jennings mention that theseal were serving a Warr for aict we knowing that they're going into a situation where they know that someone has a weapon how does that change the way that they respond if at all well it certainly changes the response the question is how does it change the response when you're going into a residence where someone has a history of having a weapon uh and let me just be clear the US Marshall Service uh their fugitive task force is comprised of surrounding agencies so there are multiple agencies that are involved uh with the fugitive task force with the Marshal Service uh the Charlotte mcber Police Department is a member of the US Marshals uh task force as well um so any time you are dealing with someone who is a convicted felon and who has been caught previously with a firearm it does raise concerns and raise awareness when you are responding so um when they do that the part of the reason the task force is such an imperative part of what we do every single day is because they have extensive training and they train together to be able to deal with these kind of situations it's always going to be uh something that's on the Forefront of their uh thought process when you're going after Charlotte's most dangerous people uh and unfortunately today was something tragic that we never want to see I never want to stand in front of you today uh to talk about an incident such something this tragic it's it's really heartbreaking yes you know I I I'm not ready to tell you all of the agencies what I can confirm is that four cmpd officers were shot uh one cmpd officer is in very critical condition at this point uh we do have to make sure that uh family members and all of them are notified so I'm not going to release which agencies they were with with the task force Chief can you clarify the number of shooters that your department um encountered so the question is the number Shooters we are right now we believe there are two Shooters involved uh again we have two people of interest at the police station that are being questioned right now uh and we have confirmed that the individual that was uh set up that we were serving the warrant on uh was the individual who fired the initial shots and was deceased in the front yard uh at the end of all of this soes they the other officers besides the officer that's in critical condition the other officers are stable uh the degree of injuries are varying anywhere from a graze wound uh to a to a wound that uh requires a little bit more attention but they are stable and expected to be okay and can you say of offic are shot in this were they responding officers were they officers yes I can confirm that uh we do have a we do have an a sergeant who is assigned to the task force who was on the scene uh that officer immediately called for help the three officers or the four officers that were shot are officers who were responding to the scene Chief J I'll get to you yes yes sir scene can you just tell us what Firearms these suspects had and when you were able to get into that house were there any other firearms that would have that that's still early to tell uh right now we're still doing the investigation in the house I can't tell you it was a high-powered rifle that was involved on the suspect then yes sir uh first of all my thoughts and prayers you and ussh what you say abouty of officers Brothers thank you for that question so The Bravery of our officers that responded to the scene knowing that they're going into gunfire is is what I've been saying for many years is in the face of danger our people step up and this profession steps up and that's what we should be defined as doing because we they knew what they were going into and still held their own and attempt to apprehend this suspect they knew that they had officers that needed help that needed to be extracted from that location yet they went in some getting shot themselves as a result so uh The Bravery the heroism uh everything that goes down with that defines what our profession is our people demonstrated that today and I couldn't be more proud of the response I couldn't be more proud of the Partnerships that we have at every single level of law enforcement every single level of Public Safety I can't say enough about the phone calls the text messages uh the support and as you heard Lieutenant petus say or the mayor say that a lot of it is what do you need how can we help and it just uh in times like this that's exactly what we need in in these situations Chase in terms of other surrounding areas law enforcement agencies can you talk about how many maybe from other counties helped out or federal law enforcement agencies help out yeah so the the question is how many other agencies are with the fugitive task force or just responded um so The Fugitive task force I don't have the exact numbers uh with Charlotte has one member uh on the fug fugitive task force as a sergeant but mainly the surrounding agencies within our uh within our surrounding uh cities and towns uh are members of that and we can get you those numbers exactly what involed actually helped out responding to this whether it was g county providing their be C or whatever yeah so uh so the officers who responded to help out um all the Federal agencies were on the scene with me and uh uh State agencies of meinberg County Sheriff's Office was there as well um we had agencies uh from Pineville uh to different different towns within our our County uh they sent officers in to answer our calls for service because we were we obviously you can imagine the Manpower needs that it was to secure that scene and to do the transports so they were very helpful to ensure that we did not let our citizens down in responding to those calls for service and they were very helpful in that soer no children in the house there was one juvenile that we did get out of the house though yes High not right now the type of ammunition that's still part of the investigation uh all of that will have to be uh be looked at as as far as we when we get into the house ALS also recover any projectiles that might have been as taken out as treatment to the officer so there's a there's a lot that we still have to uncover we're not there yet consider so the question is whether this was an appropriate time to serve a warrant uh I will I will tell you hold on I will say when you're talking about a felon who has propensity to carry a firearm there is no great time to do it uh whether it's in the middle of the night or in the middle of the day uh the interest in The Fugitive task force was to ensure that this person was brought to Justice and taken off the streets uh and unfortunately uh he decided that he was going to respond to that by gunfire at our officers yes ma'am you have any prior histories or calls regarding this place of residence I I do not right now but uh the history of this residence the history of the individual all of that will be released very soon we're going to try to get that information out we do have a lot of family notifications that we have to make in order to provide more information to each and every one of you uh about this individual so yeah so the question is is right now is the shelter in place open is it area okay to to uh go back to normal duties yes we're going to be at the residence processing the crime scene uh probably for several hours uh but as far as the lockdowns and and closure of roads and all of that we have opened that back up the house has been secured by our officers have been cleared uh and now now comes the tedious task of ensuring that we collect the evidence and process the scene yes I just wanted to with you you said one suspect was shot in that FR yard mention two more people inside that that are now in C one of those people the add or their victim one ofps yeah so the question is about the two uh other individuals who were who came out of the house later uh uh we can't I can't confirm right now whether which one or if either or the suspects in the additional shots that were fired uh what I can tell you is that we had the house secured um and it was the perimeter was Secure and we continued to take gunfire from inside the residence and after we cleared the residence there were only two individuals that came out uh one uh 17-year-old Juvenile and then a uh another female who was taken out as well so just to confir is only one supect that is one suspect is deceased yes Chief uh do you know I hate to ask this do you know if this is the deadliest enforcement day in mberg county or Charlotte hisry I cannot I've been I've been with the Charlotte mackenberg Police Department for 32 years uh I can't remember an incident where three law enforcement officers uh were and and and also three that were killed in the same incident as well as one in critical condition and an additional that were shot uh and injured so um uh to me it's it's the most tragic one that I've been involved in I I don't know historically I I can't imagine that there's one that's that's any worse than what we're seeing today Chief what are the questions that your investigators will be working to answer in the coming days weeks months well a lot of the questions that need to be answered we don't even know what those questions are right now we have to get a full understanding of why this occurred uh and also to uphold the Integrity of Investigation we want to make sure that we check all the boxes that we need to so that we can get a full a full prosecution in this case if and when it comes down to that uh we know some answers but we still have many that we have to uh clear up and in many that we have to continue uh to work on until we can really lock down what happened who was involved uh and and move on from there so chief governor Cooper post on social media as out to your department have you had that conversation with him and if so what was talk about I did I I spoke with the governor uh earlier today he basically asked me what do I need he's here to support uh certainly appreciative of of the phone call with him uh and um you unfortunately I know he would be here if he could right now he's on his way to come and speak with us but um I did speak with him this afternoon Chief while our prayers are for the families and the community um I am a um East Charlotte resident since 1975 I appreciate what the police officers do in our community speaking on beh of the East Charlotte Community I'm prayerful that there will be an increase of the police presence in our area in East Charlotte yeah thank you for that um you at this point I'm I'm concerned mainly with taking care of the officers taking care of their families uh and all of that comes into play later on how do we respond to this community but want to make sure the community knows that we're going to continue to keep them safe uh we got a lot of brave men and women out there that are going to continue working in that uh neighborhood and they're going to continue to um uh work in the best interest of our community and our citizens so yes I'll take three more questions yeah okay all of the officers from cmpd that were injured were responding to the scene the one office the one sergeant that we have assigned to the task force was not injured yes I I don't know how many total officers were there serving the warrant so I don't have that that's that's from the US Marshals uh task force that they they had their a contingency of their U task force out there doing this warrant service yes my condolences for you and the police force I definitely feel like this is a bad tragic situation that should never take place in regard enforcement and just citizens throughout this throughout the state um what you say could be a beneficial step that could be taken between relations between police enforcement and whether it could be just citizens felons or whatever the case may be what could be done to bridge the gap so a level of a situation will never take place well I I I'll be honest with you whatever Gap there is this level should never get to this place right I mean you can have all the Hate in Your Heart that you possibly can have that should never result in taking a life and much less taking multiple lives so the Charlotte mackenberg Police Department and every agency you see behind me has a priority to in to continue to make sure that we have the the best community relationships that we possibly can but a lot of that also means that we have to be met halfway on certain things so um we're going to continue to do that and like I said we're going to continue to keep your community safe so thank you that's all I'll ask answer for now so thank you all right thank you all for being here um we we do need your support and we do need your prayers both for our officers and the other officers involved and for for their families and and for those impacted in our community in other different ways so uh stay tuned to cnpd public affairs our social media channels and and press releases that we're going to be putting out will keep you up to dat on all the information that we have as we get it thank you [Music]