CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers who fired shots during the deadly shooting of an armed robbery suspect last June were justified in their use of force, the district attorney announced Tuesday.
CMPD responded to a reported armed robbery at a Food Lion on Tuckaseegee Road around 1 p.m. on June 26. Officers spotted a person matching Kevin Boston's description while en route to the store and attempted to contact him. When officers approached Boston, he allegedly put both bags on the ground and reached toward his pants and pulled out a gun, according to District Attorney Spencer Merriweather.
CMPD officers Erik Torres and Richard Meyer reasonably feared for their safety when Boston pulled out the gun and fired at them, according to Merriweather's report. Meyer and Torres gave multiple commands for Boston to drop his weapon, which he refused, Merriweather said in his findings. Torres and Meyer fired a combined 13 shots, killing Boston during the encounter.
Merriweather said all the evidence gathered in the case, including body camera footage of multiple officers responding to the scene, "were reasonable in their belief that the decedent posed an imminent threat of great bodily harm or death." The state will not pursue any charges against either officer.
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