Authorities have identified the four law enforcement officers who were fatally shot while serving a warrant Monday in Charlotte as an investigation seeks to answer many open questions.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officer Joshua Eyer, Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas M. Weeks Jr. and North Carolina Department of Adult Correction officers Sam Poloche and William “Alden” Elliot were killed in the line of duty, officials said at a Tuesday news conference.
“They were good ones, people that you could trust, people that you could count on,” Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said at the news conference.
Authorities say the man the officers were trying to serve the warrant to, Terry Clark Hughes Jr., was fatally shot after he opened fire on them.
Those killed were members of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force. The 39-year-old Hughes was wanted on charges of possession of a firearm by a felon and eluding police.
Because there was gunfire from the front and the back of the home, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings, investigators are looking into whether more than one person shot at the officers. Investigators found an AR-15-style rifle and a 40-caliber handgun in the home, Jennings said. Authorities said they are investigating how the guns were obtained.
Officials said four other officers were injured in the shooting and taken to the hospital. At least two have been released. Jennings said he expected all the injured officers to make a full recovery.
Since 2005, 46 first responders have died in 21 mass killings. Of those, first responders were the only victims in six mass killings. The Washington Post defines a mass killing as a shooting with four or more dead, analyzing data compiled and maintained by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
