DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - A man being sought for violating conditions of pre-trial release was shot and killed by officers after he pulled a gun while they pursued him on foot, a North Carolina police chief said Wednesday.
Durham Police Chief C.J. Davis read a statement saying three officers were attempting to arrest the man at a house. As they approached, the man ran out, she said.
According to Davis, the man pulled a gun from his waistband and pointed it at the officers, who fired at him. He fell about 30 yards from the home he’d been visiting on the far side of a winding residential street of tidy brick ranch homes. The chief said the officers performed CPR on the suspect, but he was pronounced dead a short time later.
Davis didn’t identify the suspect but said a gun that had been reported stolen last December was found next to him.
Carlos Cates, 22, said the dead man was his half brother, 24-year-old Kenneth Bailey Jr.
Bailey was under some form of home confinement but had been visiting a relative’s house in the public housing community before he ran and was shot, Cates said. Bailey was likely under police suspicion because he had money, Cates said, but the cash was earned through a family construction business where both men worked.
“You can’t just judge a man because he got money,” said Cates, who said he is a former gang member. “We ain’t no bums.”
He said Bailey left behind two preschool-age sons.
An order for arrest was issued Wednesday based on the man having violated his pre-trial release conditions. Davis said the man was awaiting trial on charges of robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony conspiracy. She said the charges were filed in August 2016 and the order for arrest had a preset bond of $500,000.
Davis said the man also was facing an indictment for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Melanie Dantzler, 24, said she heard the gunshots coming from outside the house next door but initially didn’t stir because it’s a common sound in the neighborhood. But her mother commented on the activity next door, so she went outside and ran across the road, where she saw Bailey bleeding from his head.
“I just seen him laying there. Just laying there,” she said. Bailey and police had a long, hostile relationship, she said.
Three police officers are on paid administrative leave, which is standard operating procedure in a shooting where officers are involved, Davis said.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is also looking into the shooting, and Davis said her department will complete a five-day report on the incident.
It’s the second shooting by law enforcement in Durham in the past three days. On Sunday, a North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper shot a 31-year-old man to death during what officials described as an “armed confrontation” after a traffic stop.
Last November, Durham police shot and killed a 34-year-old man in a public housing complex. A preliminary report said Frank Nathaniel Clark of Durham reached for his waistband while being questioned by two of the officers, and a struggle followed. One officer fell to the ground and a second one shot Clark, who died at the scene.
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