5525 Galway - neighborhood reaction

Monday started as a standard Monday for a father and son on Galway Drive. But soon the police would be using their house for cover as they exchanged gunfire with a man they had wanted to arrest.

Residents living near 5525 Galway Drive were still processing that less than 24 hours earlier, one of the deadliest shootouts in North Carolina law enforcement history took place in their neighborhood, and eyes from all over the nation were locked in on what is normally a quiet existence.

For Saing Chhoeun and his son Jay, who live next door, the event was especially personal as police used their home as a shield, and a strategic location to try and gain entry to the yard where eight officers were shot by a suspect. Four would die from their wounds.

“I feel sorry for the four officers who died,” Saing said, speaking to the Observer from his home on Tuesday. “In just a couple of moments, people died right beside my house.”

Most of Monday was a typical day for the father and son. As Jay was pulling into the driveway a little before 1:30 p.m., Saing was getting ready to leave for work. He said he had just started his truck when officers with the U.S. Marshals pulled up.

Before the officers arrived, Jay said he saw the suspect, Terry Clark Hughes, Jr., sitting in the side door entrance of the home next door. He didn’t really know the suspect, he said, but would sometimes see him doing yard work.

And before Monday, they had never had issues with him, or the other people who lived in the home. They hardly spoke to each other, but were cordial when crossing each others paths.

But with the Marshals arrival, he said, the suspect disappeared inside the home. Speaking into some kind of microphone, he said, the officers announced they had a warrant for the suspect’s arrest.

Jay, listening to the orders of an officer on the scene, quickly moved inside the house to hide. But Saing chose to stay outside to try to live stream the events as they went down.

Only few minutes after the Marshals arrived, they both said, the gunfire started.

Saing quickly realized he was locked out of the house, and his keys were in his truck’s ignition. In the nearly six minute video posted to Facebook, which now has over 306,000 views, Saing yells for Jay - or Jimmy as he calls him in the video - to let him in.

He’s hiding behind a freezer near the back entrance of his home when officers quickly take cover near one of his cars. When they see him, they tell him to go inside, but Saing tells them he’s locked out and has no keys. He continues to ask Jay to let him in.

The officer “told me to kick the door in, I said ‘Look at me man,’“ Saing said. “I said, ‘You need to keep doing your job. Don’t worry. A bullet is not going through my freezer.’”

With his camera focused on the officers, Saing filmed officers as they tried to find a position to hide and aim their weapons at the home next door, choosing his car and trees in the neighboring backyard. The pops of gunfire continued to ring through the video until Jay finally lets his father inside.

Saing said he was surprised how much attention his live stream got. Jay said it led to people making unfair assumptions about what they saw.

“People are making it out like I was a bad person, but I wasn’t,” he said. “I was trying to protect my life and take cover, and I told him [Saing] to take cover, but apparently he didn’t think it was going to be that serious.”

And when he realized his father was locked out, he moved quickly to let him inside of the house, he said. He wasn’t going to purposefully leave his dad locked outside.

“This was really, really tragic. It really was. And people are just not really taking it serious,” Jay said. “Put yourself in my shoes. What if your house was being fired at? What you guys gonna do? Are you gonna take cover and protect yourselves? Or are you gonna just joke around? You know? This is a serious.”

After he was let inside, Saing continued to film officers from his home, documenting how the afternoon progressed, including when an armored vehicle arrived, trying to maneuver its way into his backyard.

Despite his proximity to the shootout, Saing said he wasn’t really scared throughout the event, as he lived through war while growing up in Cambodia. But Jay said he found the day’s events shocking. The neighborhood is normally peaceful, he said.

“I’ve experienced similar things in other places, but not living on this street,” he said. “And nothing as severe as officers being shot at.”

The Chhoeuns, who have lived in their home for the last six years, also have family who live across the street. The family members declined to comment for the story, but Jay said officers also entered that home and had snipers aimed at the home the suspect was in.

Both Jay and Saing said they were thankful for the officers who risked their lives to keep them and the rest of the neighborhood safe, as well as the officers who died.

By Tuesday afternoon, the neighborhood, comprised of mostly single-family homes, was filled with people coming to take a look at the aftermath of the shootout. Most were neighbors, some heard about the event and wanted to get a peek.

The front of the red brick house appeared as though it was almost ripped off, exposing the entrance, a bedroom, and part of the living room. A mattress, bedspread, and clothing were hanging out of the bedroom, while a military uniform, prescription pill bottles and other items were lying out in the front yard.

On the side of the house, a window on the second floor have several bullet holes. Another second floor window on the back of the house also had several bullet holes.

A couple bought the brick house in 2003 for $93,000, according to records from the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds. Neither owner could be reached for comment Tuesday.

But like the Chhoeuns, other neighbors who live on streets nearby were shocked by Monday’s events.

Robin Ayscue, who lives a couple streets over from the scene of the shootout, was in her backyard when she heard the sounds of an automatic weapon.

“I immediately picked up my dog, and got inside and locked the doors,” she said. “I had no idea what was happening. I’ve never heard that much gunfire.”

She said it was clear that more than one gun was being fired, and she thought it might have been a gang. But a neighbor told her it was police.

Ayscue heard a swarm of sirens, with 50 to 60 police cars flying down the street, as well as firetrucks and ambulances.

“I was actually surprised more that more people did not get killed with as much gunfire as I heard,” she said. “I thank god that there was not even more damage than that.”

It seemed like the shooting went on for hours, but it was probably more like 20 or 30 minutes, she said. It would stop and then start back up again, Ayscue said.

She and her neighbors connected during the event. They all listened as events played out just down the road. She said it was what she imagined war sounded like.

Ayscue went to the house Tuesday morning to pay respects to the officers who died, she said, but was surprised to see the condition the home was in.

“Those men were protecting me, even two streets over,” Ayscue said. “I just wanted to really pay my respects to where they lose their lives.”

Kelly Roberts said he thought the gunshots were construction sounds at first while at his home a couple of streets over.

The neighborhood, where he’s lived the last two years, is typically quiet, he said. That’s why, after he realized the sounds he was hearing was gunfire, he also quickly put together it must be something more serious than a drive by shooting. The shots were going on too long.

Once he saw helicopters flying above the area it became clearer the police were probably involved, he said.

Roberts tried to go over to the area, but it was blocked off. While waiting down the street, he heard about the injured officers. He said he felt sorry for the families impacted by incident.

“I don’t know who did,” he said. “But they were sick in the head.”

Jay and Saing Chhoeun, when not being interviewed by the press or speaking with people visiting the scene, tried to clean up the yard on Tuesday.

Fencing, plants, and a brick patio with a wood awning had been destroyed when the armor vehicle tried passing through the side of their home into the back. Tire tracks showed the path law enforcement took.

They said it was unfortunate to see the damage afterwards, but they also understood it was necessary. Jay said they’re working on trying to figure out how they can get help with repairs.

“We came out and looked at the aftermath and it was just crazy,” Jay said. “We didn’t ask for none of this. The house nearly got destroyed.”