WBTV Investigates: Unsealed court video sheds light on search warrant dangers
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Sunrise was still more than an hour away when FBI task force officers gathered outside a home in northeast Charlotte six years ago.
The group, made up of local officers sworn to the federal task force, had a search warrant for a home suspected of drug trafficking. Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers, not on the task force or part of the investigation, had been called in last minute for perimeter support.
In a matter of moments, the bust would end with one of those Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers shooting at one of the task force officers 14 times because she believed him to be the suspect, according to court records.
For years, the controversial case has dragged on in federal court after the officer who was shot sued the city of Charlotte and the CMPD officer who shot him.
WBTV intervened as a third party, successfully winning on appeal last month a motion to unseal the video at the heart of the case that would provide a clearer story than what officers could recollect on their own.
The now-unsealed video provides an up-close look at the dangerous consequences of a federal search warrant gone wrong.
Video appears to show officer shot as he crawls on ground
It was the night of Halloween, fading into the early hours of Nov. 1, 2019. The FBI task force alerted CMPD that they would be executing a search warrant in their jurisdiction and asked for “blue light” perimeter support. A supervisor pulled two officers from a lower priority call and sent them over.
The CMPD officers had minimal instructions, then-CMPD officer Heather Loveridge would later say in deposition. When Loveridge and her partner pulled up to the stakeout, a task force officer briefed them on the operation.
The task force officer gave Loveridge a suspect description but no picture, Loveridge later testified. They were looking for a Black man, about six feet tall and 280 pounds.
Clarence Belton, a Gastonia officer experienced in more than 80 search warrants, was the only Black officer on the task force that night. Waiting outside the house with his partner, they saw the suspect come outside to bring in the trash.
Video unsealed in federal court showed police squad lights flick on. Moments later the suspect could be seen running into the garage, trailed by Belton and his partner.
The officers would later describe in deposition testimony how they paused in the garage, waiting for backup after the suspect ran inside the home.
Video shows other task force officers and the two CMPD officers run up, and a brief discussion appeared to happen.
Loveridge stood with the group as Belton moved around the garage, video shows. She testified later that she didn’t see Belton there.
The task force decided to take a battering ram to the door. As the door came down, Belton said he saw a woman standing there in a “shooter stance” with a gun trained on him.
In the video, taken from a garage surveillance system, the initial shooting happened just off screen but can be heard on Loveridge’s partner’s body cam. Her partner had left the garage to provide cover behind the house.
Belton shot at the woman and simultaneously felt one of his arms go numb. He testified that his gun dropped, and he turned to flee.
In the video, two task force officers ran out of the garage beside Loveridge after the first shots. A third officer appeared to stumble and crawl along the floor. A fourth officer darted out after him.
Loveridge said later that when she turned back to the garage, she saw no officers inside. She believed Belton was the shooter.
From the driveway, she shot at him more than a dozen times.
You can watch the video below. Note: WBTV has chosen not to blur any parts of the video but warns that the video depicts a shooting. No blood or close-up details of the shooting can be seen, nor did anyone die.
Surveillance video of Nov. 1, 2019 Charlotte friendly fire shooting
Expert: ‘No justification’ in firing
Belton described what happened in a deposition.
“As I was heading out of the garage, I kept slipping and falling,” he said. “As I plant my right hand onto the ground, I take a round into my wrist. I visibly saw it go in leaving a gaping hole. At that point in time, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was shot and being shot at. Because when I was slipping and falling before, I kept feeling things hit me.
“The feeling behind that, it was just overwhelming. So I think at that point in time when I saw that, I kind of -- I’m not going to say gave up, but it was like ‘oh, my God.’”
A police litigation specialist and former officer and chief with more than 45 years of experience agreed to review the video with WBTV.
Dr. Roy Taylor has no connection to the shooting or the lawsuit but briefed himself on the documentation surrounding the case and has experience on federal task forces.
In that moment, he said of the video, it is “absolutely not” legal to shoot at a person on their hands and knees without a gun.
“It’s irrelevant that it’s a police officer,” Dr. Taylor said. “It wouldn’t matter if it was the suspect or the woman that pulled a gun or an innocent person in the house. There’s no justification for firing that weapon.”
By that point, Belton’s gun had dropped, he testified later. He was visibly crawling. In the video, Dr. Taylor said Belton didn’t represent a threat that Loveridge couldn’t reasonably get away from.
“In her defense, I mean, this is a very quickly unfolding, dangerous situation,” Taylor said. “But again, you don’t use deadly force unless there is a threat of deadly force being used against you or somebody else.”
However, Loveridge – who was fired by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department after the shooting – argued in court filings that Belton’s actions were reasonably seen as an immediate threat of death or serious injury, which should entitle her to qualified immunity.
The case could represent a test of the leading case law surrounding modern use of force in policing.
Graham vs. Connor was a 1989 case that originated with a diabetic man in Charlotte who was injured by police. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case sets the expectation that the “objective reasonableness” standard is used when making a decision about whether a use of force has violated a person’s Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure.
All officers, including CMPD’s, are trained in that case multiple times throughout their career, beginning with basic law enforcement training, Dr. Taylor said.
Larger lessons to be learned from the shooting
Loveridge’s legal defense cited numerous issues that she believed contributed to the moment of the shooting, when she said she feared for her life and those of her colleagues.
In addition to minimal information shared about the case, video showed Belton wearing a camouflage police vest with “police” text on the front, but an unzipped hoodie covering the text on the back.
While Dr. Taylor said that ultimately the clothing has no impact on the legal standard that should be used to justify the shooting, he did note that clearer-marked clothing is better practice when executing dangerous warrants.
“I think as a lesson learned, everyone on the task force or on the entry team should be dressed identically,” Taylor said.
The situation ended with a CMPD officer using his squad car’s public address system to order the man and woman to come outside, court filings said, which they did peacefully.
Dr. Taylor said using that system earlier, or waiting to call for additional backup, could have changed the outcome. The task force said the male suspect, after all, was a convicted murderer.
“This is much more than a few task force officers really should tackle,” Dr. Taylor said. “They really should pull back, secure the perimeter, and wait for reinforcements.”
www.wbtv.com
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Sunrise was still more than an hour away when FBI task force officers gathered outside a home in northeast Charlotte six years ago.
The group, made up of local officers sworn to the federal task force, had a search warrant for a home suspected of drug trafficking. Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers, not on the task force or part of the investigation, had been called in last minute for perimeter support.
In a matter of moments, the bust would end with one of those Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers shooting at one of the task force officers 14 times because she believed him to be the suspect, according to court records.
For years, the controversial case has dragged on in federal court after the officer who was shot sued the city of Charlotte and the CMPD officer who shot him.
WBTV intervened as a third party, successfully winning on appeal last month a motion to unseal the video at the heart of the case that would provide a clearer story than what officers could recollect on their own.
The now-unsealed video provides an up-close look at the dangerous consequences of a federal search warrant gone wrong.
Video appears to show officer shot as he crawls on ground
It was the night of Halloween, fading into the early hours of Nov. 1, 2019. The FBI task force alerted CMPD that they would be executing a search warrant in their jurisdiction and asked for “blue light” perimeter support. A supervisor pulled two officers from a lower priority call and sent them over.
The CMPD officers had minimal instructions, then-CMPD officer Heather Loveridge would later say in deposition. When Loveridge and her partner pulled up to the stakeout, a task force officer briefed them on the operation.
The task force officer gave Loveridge a suspect description but no picture, Loveridge later testified. They were looking for a Black man, about six feet tall and 280 pounds.
Clarence Belton, a Gastonia officer experienced in more than 80 search warrants, was the only Black officer on the task force that night. Waiting outside the house with his partner, they saw the suspect come outside to bring in the trash.
Video unsealed in federal court showed police squad lights flick on. Moments later the suspect could be seen running into the garage, trailed by Belton and his partner.
The officers would later describe in deposition testimony how they paused in the garage, waiting for backup after the suspect ran inside the home.
Video shows other task force officers and the two CMPD officers run up, and a brief discussion appeared to happen.
Loveridge stood with the group as Belton moved around the garage, video shows. She testified later that she didn’t see Belton there.
The task force decided to take a battering ram to the door. As the door came down, Belton said he saw a woman standing there in a “shooter stance” with a gun trained on him.
In the video, taken from a garage surveillance system, the initial shooting happened just off screen but can be heard on Loveridge’s partner’s body cam. Her partner had left the garage to provide cover behind the house.
Belton shot at the woman and simultaneously felt one of his arms go numb. He testified that his gun dropped, and he turned to flee.
In the video, two task force officers ran out of the garage beside Loveridge after the first shots. A third officer appeared to stumble and crawl along the floor. A fourth officer darted out after him.
Loveridge said later that when she turned back to the garage, she saw no officers inside. She believed Belton was the shooter.
From the driveway, she shot at him more than a dozen times.
You can watch the video below. Note: WBTV has chosen not to blur any parts of the video but warns that the video depicts a shooting. No blood or close-up details of the shooting can be seen, nor did anyone die.
Surveillance video of Nov. 1, 2019 Charlotte friendly fire shooting
Expert: ‘No justification’ in firing
Belton described what happened in a deposition.
“As I was heading out of the garage, I kept slipping and falling,” he said. “As I plant my right hand onto the ground, I take a round into my wrist. I visibly saw it go in leaving a gaping hole. At that point in time, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was shot and being shot at. Because when I was slipping and falling before, I kept feeling things hit me.
“The feeling behind that, it was just overwhelming. So I think at that point in time when I saw that, I kind of -- I’m not going to say gave up, but it was like ‘oh, my God.’”
A police litigation specialist and former officer and chief with more than 45 years of experience agreed to review the video with WBTV.
Dr. Roy Taylor has no connection to the shooting or the lawsuit but briefed himself on the documentation surrounding the case and has experience on federal task forces.
In that moment, he said of the video, it is “absolutely not” legal to shoot at a person on their hands and knees without a gun.
“It’s irrelevant that it’s a police officer,” Dr. Taylor said. “It wouldn’t matter if it was the suspect or the woman that pulled a gun or an innocent person in the house. There’s no justification for firing that weapon.”
By that point, Belton’s gun had dropped, he testified later. He was visibly crawling. In the video, Dr. Taylor said Belton didn’t represent a threat that Loveridge couldn’t reasonably get away from.
“In her defense, I mean, this is a very quickly unfolding, dangerous situation,” Taylor said. “But again, you don’t use deadly force unless there is a threat of deadly force being used against you or somebody else.”
However, Loveridge – who was fired by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department after the shooting – argued in court filings that Belton’s actions were reasonably seen as an immediate threat of death or serious injury, which should entitle her to qualified immunity.
The case could represent a test of the leading case law surrounding modern use of force in policing.
Graham vs. Connor was a 1989 case that originated with a diabetic man in Charlotte who was injured by police. The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case sets the expectation that the “objective reasonableness” standard is used when making a decision about whether a use of force has violated a person’s Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure.
All officers, including CMPD’s, are trained in that case multiple times throughout their career, beginning with basic law enforcement training, Dr. Taylor said.
Larger lessons to be learned from the shooting
Loveridge’s legal defense cited numerous issues that she believed contributed to the moment of the shooting, when she said she feared for her life and those of her colleagues.
In addition to minimal information shared about the case, video showed Belton wearing a camouflage police vest with “police” text on the front, but an unzipped hoodie covering the text on the back.
While Dr. Taylor said that ultimately the clothing has no impact on the legal standard that should be used to justify the shooting, he did note that clearer-marked clothing is better practice when executing dangerous warrants.
“I think as a lesson learned, everyone on the task force or on the entry team should be dressed identically,” Taylor said.
The situation ended with a CMPD officer using his squad car’s public address system to order the man and woman to come outside, court filings said, which they did peacefully.
Dr. Taylor said using that system earlier, or waiting to call for additional backup, could have changed the outcome. The task force said the male suspect, after all, was a convicted murderer.
“This is much more than a few task force officers really should tackle,” Dr. Taylor said. “They really should pull back, secure the perimeter, and wait for reinforcements.”
Never-before-seen video of a Charlotte drug bust gone wrong
WBTV Investigates: Unsealed court video sheds light on search warrant dangers
