CMPD identifies police officer shot, wounded while chasing 14-year-old robbery suspect
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police on Wednesday released the name of the officer who was injured in a shooting last month, which resulted in the arrest of a 14-year-old robbery suspect.
Officer Elliot Whitley and other officers were running after the teen in east Charlotte on Dec. 27, when Whitley was shot, CMPD officials have said. Police had been called about an early morning car break-in at Woodland Estates Apartments. When the teen opened fire, according to police, Whitley fired back, but the 14-year-old was not hit.
Before the officers’ arrival, the suspect pointed a gun at a nearby resident, police said.
Whitley was treated at the hospital for non-life threatening injuries. He has been on the force since April 25, 2011.
The teen was charged with robbery and attempted murder of a police officer, the Observer previously reported. CMPD officials say they found a gun at the scene but have not said what kind.
Whitley has been on administrative leave following internal CMPD investigations into the shooting.
CMPD identifies police officer shot, wounded while chasing 14-year-old robbery suspect
It was the second shooting involving a CMPD officer in December.
On Dec. 18, a CMPD officer shot and killed a man who police say was stabbing his ex-wife’s 13-year-old daughter last month near the Ballantyne area of south Charlotte.
The man “forced his way” into the woman’s home in the 10000 block of Blairbeth Street, police said. He held a knife to the girl when officers arrived, police Chief Johnny Jennings said, then “without warning,” he began to stab her.
Officers “were left with no choice,” Jennings said.
Police have not named the officer nor the man who was killed.
The State Bureau of Investigation is the primary investigating agency on the case, CMPD said.
Shootings involving CMPD officers in 2021
CMPD had three other officer-involved shootings in 2021:
▪ May 27 – Officer Trey Hinton shot and wounded a robbery suspect who police say fired at Hinton while running from officers near a north Charlotte motel. Shelton Smith, 33, was taken to Mecklenburg County Jail in June after his release from the hospital. Charges include attempted murder, assault on a law enforcement official or police officer with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon.
▪ Sept. 23 – Officer Dustin Smith shot and wounded a woman outside a beauty supply store on Tyvola Road, near South Boulevard. The woman fired a gun at the store owner then made “deliberate attempts” to hit Smith with her vehicle, forcing the officer to fire, Chief Jennings said at the time. A pursuit ended at an apartment complex in south Charlotte, where a wounded Raynique Austin, 23, was arrested. After her release from a hospital, Austin faced multiple charges, including attempted murder and five counts of hit and run.
▪ Nov. 5 – Officers James Longworth and Micah Edmunds shot and killed Derrell Lamar Raney, 33, after he threatened a Walmart security guard and pointed a gun at them in the Albemarle Road store in east Charlotte.
