Suspect is lone shooter in April 29 Charlotte shooting

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The suspect was the only person to shoot at officers in the April 29 shooting that killed four officers and injured four others, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said at a conference press release Friday evening.

Police originally thought there was more than one shooter because the shots were fired through two second-story windows.

CMPD Deputy Chief Tonya Arrington said the suspect was found with two guns, but only fired an assault rifle during the 17-minute shootout with police and other agents.

“It feels like forever. They were in a gunfight,” Arrington said.

Arrington also said the injured officers were not hit by “friendly fire.”

“The officers were not shot, nor by their fellow officers. Not blue on blue,” Arrington said.

CMPD also revealed that the suspect shot at police through two upstairs windows of the home on Galway Drive in Charlotte. The house is located in a typically quiet area, not far from the city center.

CMPD said there are 1,100 videos and more than 10,000 pieces of evidence and stressed the case remains under investigation. The house on Galway Drive was damaged after the incident and Arrington said it was caused by a SWAT team. The team responded after the shooting was over to ensure there was no other shooter.

Joshua Eyer and three members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force, Tommy Weeks, Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott, were shot and killed while attempting to arrest a wanted man on April 29. The city has mourned the officers since the shooting with four funerals and a memorial service. .

The April 29 shooting was the deadliest attack on law enforcement in the United States since 2016, according to the Associated Press.

The attack occurred as members of a U.S. Marshals Service joint task force attempted to serve an arrest warrant for a suspect for possession of a firearm by a felon. The man began shooting at the officers in front of the house and was also killed in the shootout.

A task force of officers from different agencies had arrived in the residential area in an attempt to capture Terry Clark Hughes Jr., 39, wanted for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and fleeing to escape the county of Lincoln, in the North. Caroline. Hughes was killed in the shooting.

His criminal record in North Carolina dates back more than a decade. That includes prison time and convictions for breaking and entering, reckless driving, evading arrest and illegal possession of a firearm as a former felon, according to state records.