No charges for officer who shot, killed man during domestic call in South End

WSOCTV.com News Staff
·2 min read
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No charges will be filed against a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer who killed a man after he stabbed another officer over the summer.

The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office announced the decision on Friday.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released body camera video last month showing when Peter Cory stabbed Officer Shawn McMichael in the head, and was then shot and killed by Officer Tyler Bourque.

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Police got a domestic violence call on Aug. 20 for The Penrose apartments in South End. When they arrived, police heard gunshots and screaming in an apartment and forced their way inside.

CMPD said when officers got inside, they heard the screaming coming from a bedroom. They rushed in and found Cory with a gun in his hands. Officers told him to drop the weapon multiple times. Then, Bourque moved toward Cory, who then lunged at Bourque and tackled him with a knife in his hand. The second officer, McMichael, moved in to help and was stabbed in the back of the head.

Then, a gunshot went off and the scuffle stopped. Cory died at the scene.

Police said Bourque was the one who fired his gun.

In the District Attorney’s Office review, it notes that the victim of the original domestic violence call, Cory’s girlfriend, said she wasn’t in fear for her life. She said she contacted police because she thought Cory “needed extra help such as medicine or a hospital visit.” However, she also mentioned Cory had shot her. She said that was accidental.

Despite that information, in the conclusion of the investigation, the DA pointed out that based on the evidence available to officers, he will not be seeking charges related to Cory’s death. The DA noted that Bourque clearly shot Cory in defense of McMichael. He also said they faced a variety of threats that justified the use of deadly force.

“In a matter of seconds, Officers McMichael and Bourque confronted a sequence of serious and imminent threats: a gunshot behind a closed door, the brandishing of a firearm, the physical assault of an officer, and finally the stabbing of an officer about the head,” the report reads. “Under certain circumstances, any one of these threats might have been enough to justify the use of lethal force.”

(WATCH BELOW: Body camera video released after man who stabbed officer shot, killed by police)