Four officers were killed in a shooting while attempting to serve a warrant at a home in Charlotte, North Carolina, including one deputy US marshal and two local task force officers, authorities say.
Four other law enforcement officers were shot during the incident, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings said Monday evening. An internal law enforcement memo reviewed by CNN shows officers are looking for the person who bought the firearm used in the shooting to potentially bring federal charges. Jennings said during a Tuesday news conference the investigation is active and ongoing.
Evidence from the residence is still being processed, he said, adding the amount of evidence that will be collected is expected to be “well over 100 rounds of gunfire of projectiles and casings.”
Around 1:30 p.m. local time, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force was serving active felony warrants for possession of a firearm by a felon and felony flee to elude on a male suspect at a residence on the 5000 block of Galway Drive in the city’s North Tryon Division.
The man, later identified by authorities as Terry Clark Hughes, Jr, 39, allegedly began firing, striking multiple officers, police said.
The officers on the scene requested immediate backup. The suspect allegedly continued to fire as more officers arrived.
Hughes allegedly exited the residence with a firearm. Seeing Hughes as an “imminent deadly threat” officers fired on the suspect, who was later pronounced dead at the scene, according to officials.
“We saw officers going into the line of fire to save their brothers in blue who have gone down in an act of trying to keep our community safe,” Jennings said Tuesday. “To me, that’s truly heroic. When you hear the gunshots and the rapid fire and they are running directly into it because they know there are people who need help – they risked their own lives to do that.”
The officers were met with gunfire from a “high-powered rifle” and returned fire, fatally shooting the suspect. Jennings said the task force had been serving the warrant to that suspect.
Jennings said 12 CMPD officers fired their weapons during the incident, all of whom have been placed on administrative leave pending a standard officer-involved shooting investigation.
2 firearms recovered from residence, police say
Authorities identified the deceased suspect as 39-year-old Terry Clark Hughes Jr. He was wanted for possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of felony flee to elude out of Lincoln County, North Carolina, police said.
As law enforcement agents set up a perimeter around the residence, the memo said, Hughes opened fire with what was likely an AR-15-style rifle from a second-story window, striking 8 officers, the memo said.
Hughes then jumped out of the second story window onto an awning and officers shot and killed Hughes, the memo said.
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The AR-15 rifle, a .40 caliber handgun, along with additional magazines and ammunition were recovered from the scene, according to Jennings.
Police initially believed there might have been another suspect shooting from inside the residence, but Jennings told CNN on Tuesday it’s likely Hughes was moving through different parts of the home.
“Unfortunately, this individual decided to greet them with gunfire, and it just turned into a tragic event for the officers who were originally out on the scene and the officers who responded to try and assist,” Jennings told CNN.
A woman and a 17-year-old girl were brought outside of the home after police secured the scene, Jennings added. They were taken to the Charlotte Law Enforcement Center to be interviewed by detectives, police said.
At a press conference before the fourth death was announced, Jennings called the incident “the most tragic one that I’ve been involved in.”
“I’ve been with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for 32 years. I can’t remember an incident where three law enforcement officers were [injured] and also three that were killed in the same incident,” he said.
Former FBI special agent in charge and Fox News contributor Nicole Parker spoke to Fox News Digital about the situation.
“These officers on this U.S. Marshals Task Force are the best and the brightest and the bravest. Each day when you walk out the door for work, you understand you may never make it home,” she explained.
“I cannot say it enough – Americans need to back the blue… They aren’t making huge sums of money, but their sacrifices are infinite and priceless.”